


Ways They Might Have Met

by Wingzrooke



Series: Ways they might have Met [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Katekyou Hitman Reborn!, Naruto
Genre: #Fem!Harry, #idea dumping ground, #introductions, #multiple AUs, #no beta we die like illiterates, #ways they might have met, F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-12
Updated: 2020-11-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:08:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 40,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27530539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wingzrooke/pseuds/Wingzrooke
Summary: Plot Ideas/ multiple short stories on how my character Sirina Potter-Black (in her multiple different lifetimes) met the Arcobaleno/her Guardians.A 'Series' written for NANOWRIMO (though not every day has an update). I try to update as I finish writing everything I can of a story. Sort of my version of a plot-dumping ground.
Series: Ways they might have Met [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1350046
Comments: 51
Kudos: 232





	1. Child's Shelter: Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This series of stories are what I worked/am working on for NANOWRIMO. I was going to wait until December to post, but decided to post what I have as I finish up writing them. The idea is to introduce each short story as I write them. They aren't all complete yet, and I may add on to some of them later. 
> 
> Stories in this work so far:
> 
> 1: The Kids Shelter  
> 2: Phobias from Death  
> 3: Feral

* * *

It was a sad but true fact that Sirina had lived many similar lifetimes. Not a surprising fact, mind, because she was constantly reborn into similar realities and circumstances, even if the fates had branched out by allowing her to be reborn in worlds like her own, worlds like those with Flames, and worlds like those of the Elemental Nations, or some combination thereof. Living such similar things over and over had become a kind of cage to her, one that her Cloud instincts could no longer tolerate. This constant chafing against her nature led Sirina to change things up in odd ways.

This lifetime, Ri was born once more to Sawada Nana and Iemitsu. It was one of those worlds where Iemitsu had, for reasons unknown (the reasons varied between realities), sent a Mist to alter Nana’s mind. In this reality it led to Nana Sawada being incapable of properly caring for a child. Through no fault of her own. Ri didn’t know if her mind was destroyed so thoroughly on purpose, or if it was intentional. Either way, the result was a cold and lonely household. Such a phenomenon wasn’t unusual in her many lifetimes, but this time Nana was so messed up that Ri’s trigger (her life being endangered) woke her full self and brought back her memories at the age of two. Honestly, it was a miracle she even made it to that age.

The next three years were filled with making up for the lack of a proper feeding schedule or proper food, growing her body stronger, and saving up money she gathered from various sources. Most of her ‘sources’ for cash were running small errands for people in her neighborhood once she turned four, or pickpocketing people around town when she couldn’t find odd-jobs.

Pickpocketing was a lot more difficult than it sounded, as her tiny little fingers were not as nimble as those of older children and teens. Not to mention pockets were quite a bit taller than her. When it came to pick-pocketing, she eventually resorted to using magic and flames to take the money.

She also started to build up a ‘network’ of contacts around the world. Even Mammon themself was a part of that network, although they had no idea Ri was the young daughter of Iemitsu. Her online self went by the name Uzumaki Sirina, as Ri would if she had to leave her home. As the existence of Sawada Tsunako, Gokudera Hayato, and Yamamoto Takeshi proved, being of only half Japanese descent wasn’t all that odd. Uzumaki Sirina was, according to her cover, half Japanese and half English. Raised in England, as her accent and fluent command of British slang showed. Supposedly.

When she turned five, Sirina started to raid houses, purses, and pockets for identification cards and passports. She made an exact duplicate of all the cards she found using the Gemino spell. Then she returned the originals to their owners. Now that she had an original to work with, Sirina used magic to alter the pictures and details on the passports and IDs.

She made several copies of each, using different looks. Her two favourite were, of course, her ‘Naruko’ look (in honor of how she looked in her lifetimes as Uzumaki Naruko), and her ‘Sirina’ look (in honor of the lifetimes where she was born Sirina Potter-Black). Technically she’d been named Sawada Tsunako in this lifetime, but since neither of this lifetime’s parents had ‘raised’ her (one because she could not and one because he would not), Ri returned to the name she felt was most truly ‘her’.

The Identification and papers would become necessary if, as she feared, Vongola came to seal or otherwise eliminate the threat she represented to the Vongola chain of succession simply by existing and having Iemitsu for a father.

Shortly before her birthday, three days before as a matter of fact, her fears came to pass. Ri got an alert from her online contacts that her ‘father’ and his boss boarded a plane to Japan. It wasn’t the first time Sawada Iemitsu had visited the Sawada home, though he’d only visited twice since she’d fully awoken, but he’d never brought his boss home with him before. It was unlikely that the ninth Head of the Vongola Famiglia was visiting for any other reason than to seal Iemitsu’s child. Regardless of their reasons, Sirina had no desire whatsoever to deal with sealing. Whether or not she let the seal take, the whole thing would be a pain.

Instead of waiting around for them to arrive for a ‘surprise visit’, Ri packed up all her luggage and sealed it into a tiny ‘tattoo’ seal on the inside of her wrist. After fully cleaning out her room, Sirina raided the rest of the house for valuables and supplies. This included three sets of clothing from both Nana and Iemitsu’s wardrobe. Excepting underwear because… yuck! She also stocked up on canned food, water bottles, and tupperware among other things. 

That night after Nana went to bed and started to snore, Ri sneaked out of the house. Once she’d made it several blocks away, she used a ninja transformation technique (the Henge) in order to look like an adult. In memory of Uzumaki Naruko (her past life where she’d learned the Henge), Ri turned herself into a tall slender half-Japanese and half-English woman with blonde hair and green eyes. Now disguised, Sirina made her way to the train station. It wasn’t hard to get an overnight ticket to Tokyo.

Instead of heading to the sleeping cabin, Sirina made her way to the dinner cart. Once there, she used Mist flames to form a laptop, and also to connect her internet connection to the cellphones of the other passengers on the train. Once connected, Sirina booked a plane ticket for Uzumaki Sirina from Japan to Italy. Not because she thought it would be the last place Vongola would look for the missing Vongola descendant, because she was well aware they may think another Famiglia had kidnapped her. No, she chose Italy because Italy, Asia, and Russia had the highest concentration of people with Active Flames. Not that Ri intended to have anything to do with the Mafia, Triads, or the Bratva.

But people were less likely to notice a random low-powered Cloud or Mist in those places. The circumstances in which she might be discovered as a flame-active child would choose which of her secondaries she would reveal as her false ‘primary’ flame. Most likely it would be Cloud. It was truly amazing how often Cloud flames let her get away with all sorts of things she couldn’t otherwise.

After a hearty dinner, Sirina retreated to her sleeping cabin for the night. The remainder of her trip passed quickly, and Sirina soon found herself adrift in Rome. She didn’t have much trouble blending in, as she still retained the ability to speak Italian like a native. A few days later, Sirina released her Henge and took to the streets in her ‘Sirina’ guise. The black-haired half-British half-Italian, green-eyed child stood out a lot less than the half-British half-Japanese little girl would have. Or even her ‘true’ form of this lifetime.

She could have stayed as an adult, gotten a job, and lived out her life that way. Except that she’d done that before and didn’t want to repeat the same experience this lifetime. Instead she stayed on the streets, learning how to live like the other street kids. It was one thing she’d never done in a world with Flames. She’d lived similarly in lifetimes in the Elemental Nations, but never in this type of world.

Dumpster diving was somehow less intense when one didn’t have to fight off partially ninja-trained kids for edible ‘trash’. Still, she was trying to blend in, so she didn’t use ‘ninja tricks’ to compete. She grew thinner and leaner once more. Eventually she learned of some childrens shelters that wouldn’t report street children to social services.

Her original plan was to live like a street-child for a couple years and then allow herself to be picked up by the system. She missed having a family. But learning about these shelters changed her mind. It was something she’d never tried before, after all. It took her a while to decide on which system of shelters she wanted to utilize. For one thing, she had to watch them and find out if they really didn’t report children without homes. Some of the ones she’d been told about didn’t report children, but most did. Then she had to look at what the shelters actually offered to children.

Most offered only the most basic of amenities: a bed or place to sleep for a night, a restroom to share with the others there, sometimes a toothbrush and toothpaste, and a meal for the night. Then the children would have to leave in the morning. Then there were those that obviously had more funding. A child could get a bed, a meal, a restroom and shower, could wash their clothing, and there may even be a basketball court or something attached to the shelter where the children could play a game together. Those were only two of the variations. There were all different levels of shelters, both better and worse, and Sirina was determined to try them all.

She started with the worst ones she could find, at the end of fall, and worked her way up to the best. It took her a couple years, as she only used the shelters in the worst weather, to have only a couple more shelters left. She was thirteen that year, when she entered a shelter on the coldest night of that year. It was a night that would change her life.

After ‘checking in’, Sirina was given a new coat, some gloves, a toothbrush with a tiny toothpaste tube, a little baggie of candy, and a pair of socks. Then she was given directions to the sleeping room, bathroom, entertainment room, and the dining room. Since it wasn’t time to sleep yet, Sirina used the bathroom and then made her way to the entertainment room. Far from the first person to arrive that night, and actually closest to the last that would be accepted for the night, Ri scanned the room looking for a place she could sit down or join with other kids.

The room, despite its large size, was fairly packed. This wasn’t unusual, the shelters like to take in and help as many kids as they could. The entertainment options for this shelter included a foosball table, a small two-lane basketball ‘arcade game’ (the type that had two hoops above sloped fabric to return the mini-basketballs to the shooters), and a large area with couches surrounding a television. Her eyes paused on the large group surrounding the basketball shooting game. Specifically her gaze stopped to admire the two buff teens, who looked about sixteen or seventeen, which were currently shooting.

“Move it, shrimp!” Someone growled from behind her, and Sirina squeaked and skittered to the side. Unfortunately, unlike in ninety-nine percent of these types of altercations, moving out of the way and mumbling an apology did not defuse the situation. The tall teen, who looked to be about fourteen and feeling his oats, followed her into the room and to the side. He then proceeded to yell all manner of nonsense at her. Sirina was starting to think it might be worth it to punch the boy in the face, whether or not it got her thrown out, when someone else interceded.

One of the downsides to being a Sky, even if she contained as much of her Sky Attraction as she could, was that nothing that involved her really went unnoticed. She just naturally drew attention, and not always positive attention. Most of the room had been watching the argument from the corners of their eyes. Now, they were outright staring.

“Nock it off. You want to start a fight then take it outside. None of us want to get kicked out. Especially tonight.” The speaker was one of the teens who’d been shooting hoops earlier. He was the tallest person there, and had more muscles than most street kids could build. He was also unfairly attractive, in Sirina’s opinion. The boy who’d been yelling at Ri paled and basically fled with his tail between his legs.

“Don’t mind that idiot, he’s always causing trouble.” The teen offered, holding a hand out to shake. “I’m Dante.” He added as Sirina cautiously accepted the handshake.

“Ri.” She responded shyly, looking up at him through her long black eyelashes. The boy really was good looking. His eyes were green like hers, but more an emerald green to Sirina’s bottle-green (or Avada-green, for the magic-inclined). He also had black hair, and warm olive-toned skin.

“I haven’t seen you here before, first time?” He asked once they’d released hands. She nodded shyly. “They’re about to serve dinner. Come on, I’ll show you the way.” He offered, to teasing from the other teens his age. They’d trailed after Dante when the boy came over to break up the argument and just sort of … stuck around. Now the entire group, plus Ri, made their way to the ‘dining room’. Honestly it was more of a cafeteria than a dining room. There was a place to line up, along the right hand wall, and then a long counter where kids could pick up a tray and food, with drinks at the end. The rest of the room was taken up by a series of long tables and benches.

Once the entire group settled in at the tables with their food, Ri listened shyly to the older teens, mostly boys but a couple girls came to join them. Strangely she didn’t feel out of place, despite the large age-gap between herself and most of the others. Anyone else near her age sat together in other places. The one who looked closest to her age in this group looked about sixteen. Despite teasing Dante earlier, none of the older teens made Sirina feel unwelcome or otherwise gave her a hard time. When she made a quiet comment, they still didn’t make fun of her.

Later, when everyone headed to bed, the girls from that group saved her a spot with them. Right in the center of the other girls. It was the nicest evening she’d had since being born into her current lifetime. Unlike with previous shelters, she thought she might return to this one more often than strictly necessary. If only to see if this group of teens was here. Living on the streets didn’t leave her a lot of time to socialize.

The next morning, after breakfast, Dante’s group started to break up. Ri assumed she too would have to go her own way. Unless one was part of a gang, or blood family, kids didn’t usually stick together outside of shelters. Of course, Ri hadn’t counted on her Sky Attraction.

“Hey, Ri!” Dante called after her, jogging down the street to catch up. Politely Ri turned and paused to wait for the teen. With his longer legs, it only took a few seconds.

“What’s up, Dante?” She wondered.

“You’re pretty young to be out here on your own. Got anyone to watch your back?” Dante asked. Sirina tilted her head to the side as she considered him thoughtfully.

“No. It’s just me.” She replied after a moment while Dante fidgeted slightly. At her words he nodded, likely having expected that answer.

“Stick with me kid. Me and my friends’ll look after you.” Dante half-offered half-ordered. The words could have been a trap, girls who lived on the streets had to be extra-careful, but her intuition told her he felt only protective and worried.

“I won’t join a gang.” She warned him, and Dante huffed a half-laugh.

“We’re not a gang. We just make it a point to watch out for each other, and sometimes we help each other out if we can. You met most of them last night.” He corrected, and Ri thought the offer over. It wasn’t a terrible offer. And she _had_ technically experienced living the solo street life already… it wouldn’t be terrible to try something new.

“I’ll go with you for a little while.” She finally agreed. A smile bloomed across his face, making him even more handsome than before. He practically glowed, and a small glow of almost-active green flames showed her why. The lightning flames were still inactive, so only those with active flames would be able to see the glow. Likely Dante didn’t even know about them. Not that it mattered, at the moment. It did explain why he felt the need to take care of her and protect her, though.

Choosing to join up with Dante would prove over the next year or two to be one of her best choices. Somehow, despite her continuing troubles throughout many lifetimes (with very few exceptions), it seemed she’d managed to find herself an excellent Lightning Guardian. Even better, he was still inactive, even if it was almost on the edge of going active. Being around Ri so every day only brought him closer to that edge. Still, despite her best efforts to keep him inactive and thereby avoid drawing attention to them both, their third year together the pair of them got caught in the crossfire of two gangs fighting.

Being her guardian (even if he didn’t realize it), naturally meant that Dante threw himself between Ri and the bullets. As he took two shots that would have hit Ri in the back, another came at her in the front. Dante saw the shot just before it would have hit her, the realization lighting his eyes in horror before hardening in determination. He exploded in the first awakening of Active lightning flames, the flames streaming out from him to form a bubble around both Ri and himself. No longer having to worry about bullets hitting either of them, Dante swept Ri up into his arms and ran from the scene. The dome stayed around them until they were hidden down an alley.

Then Dante collapsed. Ri hid the both of them with her Mist flames, summoned the bullets out of Dante and then used her Cloud flames to fix the holes caused by the bullets. A simple cushioning charm on the ground beneath them and Ri settled in to wait. It took until the next morning for Dante to wake up, and Ri knew she would need to explain flames to him. As soon as he woke up, Ri spoke.

“Morning, Dante. I need to explain some things to you quickly, before anything else. Here, eat this while I talk.” Ri ordered, handing him a granola bar. He began to inhale the bar while she spoke.

“Do you remember the green power you used yesterday?” She asked, and he nodded. “Good. Then I won’t have to waste time convincing you. They’re real, the particular type of flame you have is Lightning flame. Lightning Flames are characterized by their color and their ability to harden. There are three categories of ‘sets’ for Flames. There are Flames of the Sky, which lightning flames are a part of. The second set is Flames of the Earth, and the third was Flames of the water, although they have been thought extinct for a long time. Anyways, the ‘Sky set’ has seven flames. Foremost and most rare are Sky flames. They are the rarest. Next rare is Cloud flames. Then are the more normal flames: Storm, Rain, Sun, and Lightning.”

“Cloud flames multiply, Mist flames create. Mostly they create illusions, but the really strong ones can create ‘solid illusions’. Storm flames disintegrate, Rain flames tranquilize, Sun flames activate, and as I mentioned Lightning Flames harden.” She added, watching to make sure he was following along.

“What about Sky flames?” He asked, showing that he had indeed been paying attention and absorbing everything.

“Sky flames property is harmony. They are different than other flames in that they enable those with Sky flames to draw in and form bonds with the other elements of the set. Those with Sky flames are known as the ‘royalty’ of the Flame world. From what I’m told, every regular element wants to bond with a Sky of their own. It is said that for a regular element, not having a Sky is to have a hole in one’s soul. A missing, aching need. To become a guardian is to have a home to belong to, a family, to be complete. So it’s said.” She explained.

“So it’s said? You mean you don’t feel it yourself?” Dante wondered. Ri grimaced and lifted her hand up. Above her palm she allowed a lick of her Sky flames to manifest.

“I have Sky flames, so it’s different for me. Ah, actually I have three flames. It’s rare to have more than one type of flame but it does happen. Flames are fueled by willpower. Their ‘full name’ is Flames of the Dying Will. They’re called that because you have to use will strong enough to overcome dying in order to activate and use them.”

“So Sky flames are amber, and Lightning flames are green....what are the other colors?”

“Cloud flames are purple, Mist flames are Indigo,” She said as she allowed her two secondary flames to hover above her palm. She extinguished all her outwardly manifested flames as she continued “Sun flames are yellow, storm flames red, and rain flames are blue.”

“I don’t feel a hole, or like anything’s missing…” Dante mused. Ri shifted slightly guiltily.

“Ah, that’s because you already have a Sky.” She admitted, and Dante’s eyes snapped to her face instead of looking at her hand where her flames had been.

“You are my Sky?” He asked, and Ri nodded in confirmation.

“Yes. We harmonized – that’s what the process of bonding between a Sky and Element is called – the first year we were together. That winter when we both came down with that terrible Flu, you remember?” Ri explained.

“I do. I remember feeling like I was going to die, but still being more worried about you than myself. You looked pretty awful, no offense.” He agreed. Ri blushed.

“Yeah, that’s the guardian instincts.”

“Guardian?”

“Ah, a regular element bonded to a Sky is called a Guardian. You are my Lightning Guardian. Typical Guardian instincts include protectiveness, the urge to care for the Sky in question, loyalty that mirrors that of the Sky to the element, among other things.”

“The most important thing you need to know about flames, though, is that they’re tied to the underworld. If anyone learns we have them, they’ll try to make us join the Mafia. Most likely as part of a famiglia. That would be very dangerous for both of us.” She warned, and Dante’s eyes went from awe and wonder to serious and worried.

“Why?”

“Because the Mafia are idiots and basically they try to make Lightnings their meat shields. Front-line shock troops in all their fights. There are very few lightnings who escape that fate. Well, few known Lightnings, anyways. As for me…Skies are known as royalty, it’s true, but they are also highly coveted. If anyone else knew I am a Sky…they would either try to force me to join their famiglia keep me in a pretty cage or they would kill me so no other famiglia could have me.”

“One of my secondaries, Cloud flames, are almost as rare as Skies and also coveted because Clouds are extremely hard to control. If they aren’t born to a famiglia, it can be very hard to convince a Cloud to join that famiglia. To be both…I cannot explain how hunted I would be. If I have to show my flames, I prefer to show my Cloud flames and keep the other two hidden. It would be best if we avoided the Mafia altogether, though. Especially since my no-good sperm-donor is part of a very strong famiglia. He doesn’t know I know, though, and I ran away a long time ago. He wouldn’t even recognize me now. Thankfully, because he and his Boss were going to hurt me. I got warning before they came to my home and fled. If they learned of me and my whereabouts, I have no doubt they would try again.” She warned, and Dante growled at her words.

“We’ll stay hidden.” He agreed, determination lighting his eyes. Ri smiled sadly at him.

“We’ll try. But other flame users can often sense whether someone is ‘active’ or not. I’ll try to show you how to hide your flames, but it isn’t easy.” Sirina warned.

True to her words, Ri did her best to teach him how to hide his flames. Unfortunately a lot of people got a good look at his face when his flames first activated, so learning to hide his flames only helped somewhat. Not even half a year later Dante had a local famiglia breathing down his neck, pressuring him to join them.

Since they believed Sirina to be inactive, their efforts took place while the two were separated. Dante returned from one such meeting to their current shelter (an abandoned building they shared with other homeless people) to find Sirina pacing ‘their’ room angrily. No one else was close-by, so Dante knew it was okay to talk. He approached cautiously. Not because he thought she would hurt him, he knew Ri would never harm one of Her Own. No, he approached cautiously because her eyes were glowing Cloud purple with her outrage.

“Hey, Tesoro” he murmured. “It will be fine. No need for all this fuss. If worse comes to worse, we can always move away. There are plenty of places to live. Both in Italy and elsewhere.” He soothed. Ri glanced at him and continued pacing.

“Maybe, but you are a very strong Lightning. Most elements have a very hard time using their flames outside their body without a conduit. You can do it easily. You may be the second strongest Lightning in the world. They won’t give up such a strong element easily.” She huffed. “I won’t have it. You are _mine_. I won’t share you with them.” She growled lowly. He gathered her into his arms, despite her slight resistance, and rested his head on top of hers.

“Then I won’t accept. Don’t worry, Tesoro.” He murmured into her hair. Ri grumbled but leaned back against him.

“I’ll think of something, Dante. Believe it.” She insisted. “I’ll find a way out of this without having to change our identities and flee the country. Believe it.” He smiled at her words.

“I believe it.” He assured. Then he let her go back to pacing, as she claimed it helped her to think. She didn’t come up with an answer before they went to bed, and Ri was up half the night pacing. It was shortly after midnight when an idea struck her. Unfortunately she couldn’t put her plan into action until daytime, so Sirina was reduced to sitting and fidgeting until Dante woke up.

When he finally woke, the two of them split up the day’s jobs. Dante, who was more than old enough, had a part-time job as a custodian, so he left to go to work to earn food money. Sirina left to pick some pockets. Once that was done, she used a cellphone she’d lifted to call one of her contacts.

“Time is money.” Mammon answered.

“Hello Mammon, this is Uzumaki. I need some information.” She greeted in turn. Mammon, as usual, was silent as they waited for the request. “I want the phone number of Verde.” There was a deeper silence on the other end for a moment.

“All the Arcobaleno’s information is restricted. For what purpose do you wish to contact Verde?” Mammon demanded.

“I have a request for them. And possibly and offer. No strings attached. I’m not stupid enough to think Verde can be tracked down by their phone number, so it’s not like it will endanger Verde. Not that I would.” She persuaded, and with a huff Mammon gave in.

“Very well. I will text the number to you once I get confirmation of payment. The charge for this information is the highest price I charge. You have the most recent price list?” Mammon’s gruff inquiry made Ri smile.

“I do. I’ll send the money over shortly.” She promised, then hung up. It took her only a few moments to download the banking app for the bank of the famiglia who kept bothering Dante. It gave her great pleasure to see how much of their funds the payment would take. In preparation for acting, Sirina had stolen their account information a week ago. Now she transferred the money through several hundred different countries banks and systems. Some more than once. Finally she transferred the payment to Mammon. Seconds later the phone number was texted to her.

With a grim smile that was more a bearing of teeth, Siring tapped on the number, and put the phone to her ear. The dial tone sounded three times before an impatient voice answered.

“Who is this? I do not recognize this number.”

“My name is Uzumaki. I have a request for you.”

“I’m not interested.” The man denied instantly. Ri rolled her eyes, but she honestly hadn’t expected any less.

“Just hear me out.” She protested. “I have a friend who is an extremely strong Lightning, and a Mafia Famiglia is trying to force him to join them. He’s pretty smart. Not to your level, obviously, but he would make a good assistant. And I happen to know your last assistant no longer works with you as of a couple months ago. I’m not asking you to help him for free, he’s a hard worker. He’s also young and strong.” She wheedled.

“Still not interested. I work best alone.” The man denied. Mentally Ri grumbled to herself, but she _did_ have a trump card.

“I’ve heard you wanted Cloud flames to work with, but you haven’t been able to convince a Cloud to work with you. If I provide you with my Cloud flames, will you hire him and give us a room?” She bargained. There was a grudgingly excited feeling in the Lightning’s pause.

“Very well. I will meet with the both of you. Where shall I meet you?” He finally agreed.

“How about outside St. Peter’s Bassilica? We’ll wait for you between the two pillars that are closest together on the right-hand side when one is facing the building from the front. They are the second and third pillars from the center.” Ri suggested.

“Agreed. I will meet you there tomorrow morning, nine o’ clock. Do not be late, or I will leave.”

“We’ll be there.” Sirina promised.

* * *

Telling Dante about her plans went smoother than she thought it might.

“But you won’t let him do any unethical experiments on you, right?” Dante demanded. She rolled her eyes.

“Of course not, Don. That famiglia can’t force you to work for them if you’re working for the Lightning Arcobaleno, you see? It’s perfect. It gives me some protection, too.” She soothed. That seemed to be enough to reassure Dante, and the pair of them settled in for dinner.

The next morning they got up before dawn and headed to a local sports center. They paid the fee and took quick showers and washed their clothes. There was a dryer, meant for swimsuits, in both the mens and womens locker rooms that they shamelessly took advantage of. Dressed in clean dry clothes, they met up outside the locker room entrances and headed to the meeting place. Thankfully it was close enough to where they lived that it only took them half an hour to reach their destination. By that time it was seven o’ clock.

They waited impatiently for the two hours. Exactly at nine o’clock AM, Verde reached the meeting place in the shadows between the two pillars. He took in the twenty year old Dante and the sixteen year old Sirina in a single unimpressed glance.

“Proof of flames, please.” Verde requested calmly. Immediately both Dante and Ri lifted up one hand and allowed a single lick of flame to manifest. Dante’s being the sparking Lightning Flame and Ri’s her Cloud flame.

“Thank you. I am prepared to offer room and board, as well as fourteen Euros and hour for your Lightning friend. As for yourself: I will offer room, board, and a salary of two hundred and forty euros a day. I don’t offer sick pay or paid vacation, but I do have an acceptable amount. I allow twenty sick days, and will authorize more if I or a doctor deem it necessary. All vacation must be approved in advance. Are either of you religious?”

Verde began to outline. Both Dante and Sirina shook their heads.

“Excellent. I don’t stop working for holidays or weekends, and I expect my assistant to do likewise accepting specific circumstances or pre-approved vacations.” Verde instructed.

“We look forward to working with you. I’m Sirina Uzumaki. My friend is Dante Uzumaki.” Sirina offered. Dante looked startled at the surname she’d given him, but as Dante’d never given her a surname before (in fact seemed to not want to talk about it), she’d given him her ‘family’ name. He was her Guardian, it was her right.

“Yes, yes. Come along, I have a car waiting for us.” Verde waved off the introduction. He didn’t bother to introduce himself, probably (rightfully) assuming they both knew his name. They followed Verde to where a car was waiting, and both hopped in. The car started itself up, driverless, and began the smooth process of leaving the city.

Ri snickered a little to herself as Dante watched the car operate itself. He looked rather pale and lightning flames kept sparking off him here and there due to his worry. Ri, in the seat next to him, ignored the sparks. It’s not like they’d hurt her. Verde sat across from them, on a bench that faced backwards, working on his tablet.

After awhile when they didn’t crash, Dante eventually calmed down. Ri turned her attention outwards, watching the countryside and cities pass through the darkly tinted windows. Dante copied her example, as there wasn’t much else to do. They’d been travelling for about two hours when a thought occurred to Sirina.

“Dante, you should probably text your old boss.” She pointed out, handing over the phone she’d swiped yesterday. Almost as though he had a radar for technology used in his presence, Verde’s head popped up from looking at his tablet and he frowned. Before Dante could take the phone, Verde swiped the phone out of Sirina’s hand. Naturally, Sirina squeaked. He’d moved so fast that even her eyes hadn’t been able to see him move.

“This phone is five years old. It’s inferior even to the inferior models on the general market. I can’t have my minions seen with such outdated inferior equipment.” Verde growled while the part of the bench next to him melted away in a fabulous display of Mist-powered technology, while a small workstation built itself up in front of him and over his lap. Next trays of components came out from the seating and hovered to the side. Verde’s hands flew over the materials, tools, and his desk. In five minutes he had two brand new phones. Well, she assumed they were phones. In reality they just looked like flesh-colored stickers. There were two rounded rectangle shaped stickers and four little dots.

A little flying robot approached. Verde instructed them to offer up the back of a hand to the robot, and when the duo did so the little robot pressed one of the rectangular stickers to the back of a hand. Sirina offered her left hand, and Dante his right. When the sticker was smoothed down to their skin, it seemed to ‘melt’ into their skin, going first clear and then invisible. Sirina could barely even feel the thing was there. It definitely didn’t feel like a sticker or bandage. More like wearing a feather ring, it was the tiniest bit of weight and pressure, but not painful or tugging.

While she’d been examining where the sticker sat, another flying robot approached. It had a long metal arm with a slightly bendy metal portion on the end, topped by one of the flesh-colored sticker dots.

“This is the ‘speaker’ portion of the ‘phone’. The robot will place the sticker far down in the outer ear canal. Please don’t move while the robot works.” Verde instructed. Dante went first this time, looking highly skeptical. The sticker was placed without pain or complications, and Dante allowed Sirina to be ‘fitted’ next. She felt a weird sensation not unlike having the disillusionment charm placed on her, except only in the small spot where the dot in her ear was. She assumed the tiny speaker dot was doing the same thing as the sticker on the back of her hand. The bot flew back to the tray and took the next two dots.

“Please place this microphone dot on the back of your lip, in the very center.” Once placed, the same feeling as the ear dot occurred, except in her mouth. Though this one was a bit more like ice melting than an egg dripping. Curiously Sirina examined the stickers with her flames, and found high concentrations of Mist flames in them.

Sirina turned her attention back just in time to see Verde finish a last set of stickers.

“These ones go on your temples, one on each temple.” Verde instructed. These stickers were no bigger than the dots inside their ears or mouths, and likewise ‘melted’ into invisibility. Or, at least, the ones on Dante did. She only assumed her own did, as she couldn’t see her own temples without a mirror. Or inside her ear, or her inner lip.

“They run primarily off mist flames. Simply direct your thoughts to calling or texting someone, or saving contact information, and it will. If you, for some reason, require a keyboard or visual screen, either the device on your hands or temples will display a keyboard and or screen for you. No one else will be able to see anything displayed by the ‘phone’, either. Unless you choose to share it, of course.” Verde finished explaining. “It also has phone and address look-up and internet browsing features, as well as the ability to play apps on the illusionary screen.” He added absently as he put away his tools and workbench.

“Thank you, Verde. These are marvelous.” Dante expressed, flexing his right hand in wonder. His nose wrinkled cutely as Dante (presumably) looked up his old boss’s cell, or else saved it to his contacts. She left him to texting his old boss about quiting.

“That’s pretty amazing. Couldn’t you just use the dots on the temples to transmit the impression of sound to the brain, and words directly to the caller, though?”

Sirina wondered. Verde grunted.

“I’m still working on that feature. For some reason everything tends to be in monotone when the microphone and speaker are eliminated.” Verde explained, going back to his tablet.

“You’ve probably already realized this but…it might be because the Mist flames that are helping to power the ‘phone’ aren’t directed. It feels like the Mist just donated flames, without willing them to a specific function. If you could have the Mist who donates flames to make these will the Mist flames to help with communication, specifically connecting the mind to normal speech and hearing, it would probably solve that problem…” Ri offered hesitantly. Verde looked up, interested once more, and frowned slightly.

“How can you tell the Mist flames aren’t directed…?” He wondered. Sirina shrugged.

“I have more than one flame. I just happen to have Mist flames as well. And…like knows like, as they say.” She hedged. Truthfully it was only partially the Mist flames. Most of her conclusion was drawn from her Sky flames and Intuition.

“Then that will be one of our projects together.” Verde announced. “We will try your idea and see if it works. I can see you will be a useful minion indeed.” He added a little happily.

“Not a minion. I’m a paid contractor.” She corrected immediately. One of Verde’s eyebrows rose in surprised question.

“It’s a Cloud thing.” She added, a little defensively. Verde shrugged, curiosity satisfied, and gave in to her demand.

“Very well, you will be a useful paid contractor.” She beamed at him, and Verde looked both startled and a little dazed. With an internal wince, Sirina regained her grip on the Sky Attraction that had slipped out because of how happy she was. Besides that little slip, it was a very auspicious beginning.

* * *


	2. Kids Shelter Ch 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Continuation of "Kids Shelter"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was originally going to make the entirety of "Kids Shelter" one online chapter, and then I realized I'd already put 17 1/2 pages up on the first chapter...so I broke it in two. ^_^'

* * *

Working with Verde was enjoyable for both of them. She thinks even Verde, in his own odd way, enjoyed working with Sirina and Dante. Not that he knew how to admit it, the socially stunted darling. Verde’s definition of ‘Assistant’ basically boiled down to fetching, making coffee, and sounding board. Also, once in a while he had Dante type up notes and record findings. Dante, who was used to taking care of Sirina, added a few self-imposed tasks.

He’d been somewhat exasperated to find that Verde was just as bad as Sirina when it came to remembering to eat when they were embroiled in a task. This was not something he’d previously had opportunity to find out about Sirina, back when their lives revolved around procuring food and/or money for food and then eating it. Now that they both had jobs and shelter, she seemed to forget about eating altogether sometimes. Which was not helped by Verde’s own forgetfulness of that fact. Actually, it was less forgetfulness than not wanting to ‘waste time’ eating when there was _Science!_ to do and things to invent.

So Dante made a point to fix something for each meal and insure all three of them ate. Sometimes this was as simple as placing a sandwich nearby. Often Verde could be relied upon to eat absentmindedly while he did other things. Sirina took a little more nudging, but not much. Other days Dante had to take away _Science!_ -ing tools, building tools, tablets, laptops, or other distractions until the duo ate.

Liquids were a similar chore, but easier because Dante could stick a straw in their mouth and they’d drink without thinking about it. Getting the other two to sleep was almost impossible. Keeping a regular sleeping schedule _was_ impossible. Still, he managed to keep them to a fairly decent schedule, excepting that it wasn’t always a work during the day and sleep at night schedule. And then there were the times when Verde went on what Dante and Sirina privately called ‘ _Science!_ Benders’. And then he may not sleep for a week. Dante still insisted Sirina got her sleep, even if he had to be up to help Verde.

Around working with Verde, both Sirina and Dante had schooling. Verde had been horrified to learn that Dante had no more than a seventh-grade education, and that Sirina had never been to school at all.

“It’s okay, V.” Sirina attempted to soothe. “I took all the learning I need from the minds of Professors with my Mist flames. I’ve got all the basics.” She added. Verde, of course, was not satisfied by this answer. So he built them what he called ‘learning machines’, not to be confused with his machines that could learn. Sirina called hers a ‘lean, mean, teaching machine’. More for the sound of the words than anything, because they weren’t actually mean machines. They were small, starting out as tablets connected to their ‘phones’.

Then, with Sirina’s Mist flames, Verde was able to eliminate the ear and mouth stickers for their communicators, which Sirina re-named after stating that is was ridiculous to keep calling them phones. At the same time, Verde incorporated the learning programs he’d previously had on tablets for them. Now they could watch, listen, or read the lessons either on the invisible hologram-esque screen projected from the dots on their temples or through the listening function of the communicators.

The program was built to take them from Kindergarten through college (all the way through PHD). Naturally the program was Science, math, and engineering heavy. _Science!_ -ing and learning took up most of their days and nights. Every once in awhile, though, Sirina’s Cloud instincts would kick up. The first time it happened, it caught Verde by surprise. Dante wasn’t sure why, Clouds were rather infamous for their wandering ways.

“I absolutely cannot stand being stuck in the labs any longer!” She declared one day, around eleven o’clock in the morning. Verde, inside the guts of a new plane/boat/car, looked up and frowned at her.

“Are you quitting?” He demanded, looking rather taken aback. Sirina rolled her eyes.

“No. I’m telling you there will be explosions if we don’t take a day off and go somewhere.” She huffed back at him. Verde noted the way purple Cloud flames were starting to glow in her eyes and drip from the ends of her hair and wisely agreed, despite the _Science!_ that had been happening only moments ago.

“Very well, you and Dante may have the day off.” Verde sighed, looking both vexed and relieved. Sirina huffed a sigh of her own.

“No, you’ve got to come _with_ us!” Sirina demanded, stomping one foot childishly. Cautiously Verde set his wrench and screw driver down.

“Why?” He inquired, but remained where he was.

“Because I won’t be able to relax if you’re here all by yourself! Something could happen to you and we’d never know!” She complained. Verde pushed his glasses up with one finger on the outside of the lens.

“I suppose I could build a health monitoring device that would inform you of my condition whenever you wanted…” He murmured thoughtfully, reaching for a tablet.

“Later.” Ri grumbled impatiently. “Vacation now.” She demanded.

“I fail to see why it is necessary for me to participate in this… _vacation_.” Verde drawled. He made the word vacation sound dirty, like a swear crossed with a pair of underwear found in the sewage of the sewers. Sirina gave him a dirty look.

“Come _on_ V! We’re family. You’re _mine._ I can’t just _leave you behind!_ ” She tried to explain. Her words caused Verde to finally haul himself up out of the wreckage of metal around himself to sit on what may have once been the hood of a car to regard Sirina seriously.

“I thought Dante was your Lightning Guardian.” He countered calmly. Dante was immediately alert. They had not told Verde that Sirina is a Sky. Of course Verde was more than smart enough to figure it out, but anyone who wasn’t a Guardian knowing was…dangerous.

“He is.” She replied impatiently. “I didn’t say you were my _Guardian_. That doesn’t make you any less one of us, V.” She added with a roll of her eyes. Verde blushed lightly but conceded.

“I will come, but I am bringing my tools and materials with me.” Ri beamed, apparently pleased with the compromise.

“Where are we going?” Dante asked his Sky. In the past Sirina’s Cloudy tendencies had taken the form of moving where they sheltered every few months. They’d never taken a vacation before. Of course, being homeless kids there was a lot they’d never done before.

“I have a list!” She exclaimed, racing from the room before they could comment. A moment later, she was back. She handed out copies of her vacation spots list. There were places all over the globe, some of them in Italy. The places ranged everywhere from the South Pole to Disney Land/World/Japan.

“You’ve never been to Mafia Land?” Verde exclaimed, sounding surprised.

“Have you?” Sirina challenged.

“I have, as a matter of fact. Every so often they call me to service the Island’s engines and generators.” Verde sniffed.

“But that’s not a vacation!” Sirina protested.

“Still, we chose to work with you because we _don’t_ want to have anything to do with the wider Mafia. We should probably avoid there for now.” Dante interceded delicately. Sirina huffed, but conceded the point. Several more places were debated before they agreed that a remote beach on a tropical island sounded like a nice place to visit for a couple days.

They ended up choosing Isla de Vieques, because Sirina thought Mosquito bay (named after the ship and not the insect) was amazing.

“…it Glows _Blue_ at night!” She enthused.

“It would be an excellent education opportunity for you two.” Verde agreed. They quickly divided up the tasks to accomplish before they could leave. Verde quickly whipped up vaccines to protect them from anything they may catch, whether from air, land, water, or food. Since it was Verde designing the vaccines from scratch (Verde didn’t depend on other people’s work, after all), Dante was sure they’d have some candy or other in a few minutes that would protect them from catching anything from a common cold to The Plague (or _a_ Plague, for that matter). Verde was also in charge of creating an insect and arachnid repellant.

Despite the bay being named after the boat, it _was_ a beach. There was a good chance there were mosquitos, sand fleas, flies, spiders, and other pests. Again, with Verde designing the things, Dante thought the insects and arachnids would all probably pack it in and head for another beach.

Sirina was in charge of booking a place to stay. Dante was in charge of packing the basics for all three of them: clothes, shoes, toiletries, bathing suits, and so on.

By the time Dante finished packing, the other two were waiting for him in the front entryway. Both of them had a small bag with entertainment items. The luggage was loaded into Verde’s private jet, the robot that controlled it having long since sent and gotten approved their flight plans.

Normally a flight from Italy to Isla de Vieques took an average of one day and seven hours. Of course Verde’s plan (like most of his things) was not average. It was, as he would say, superior. They made the trip in half an hour. Which, honestly, wasn’t all that surprising when one considered Verde is the pinnacle of technology and even the F-15 (which had been around for at least thirty years) could have made the trip in just over an hour and a half. Assuming it had the gas, of course. Which the original F-15 would not have been able to carry…but Dante was getting off track. He may have studied too many airplane designs lately…

At any rate, they landed on the ocean in a spectacular spray and came to a gentle stop on the beach right in front of the house Sirina rented for them. To the shock of the poor Puerto Rican woman that waited on the front porch to give them keys. Verde went to the back of the plane where the ‘tailgate’ ramp was lowering down. While Verde organized the vehicles to driving themselves out of the plane, Dante followed Sirina over to the porch.

Thankfully Sirina had ‘obtained’ Spanish with her Mist flames previously while Verde was studying learning via Mist Flames. Dante had an idea of what she was saying, if only because she’d discussed it with him and Verde before they landed. Ri greeted the woman, confirmed their identity as working for ‘Mr. Verde’, and received the keys. The Puerto Rican woman rattled something off at Sirina and presented a few brochures before leaving.

Sirina waved as the woman drove off, and Dante waited quietly until Sirina turned back to him.

“Shall we unload?” Ri suggested, and it was as good a suggestion as any, so they did. Once the unloading was finished, Dante was dispatched to the nearest grocers to pick up food.

* * *

While his assistant was off getting food, Verde laid on a beach recliner and worked on his tablet. Or rather, he would have if Sirina didn’t attack him with sunscreen the moment he sat down.

“You have very fair skin, V! I don’t want you to get sunburned!” Sirina scolded when Verde complained.

“I could make much better sunscreen than this…” Verde grumbled.

“You could, but it would be a waste of time right now.” She replied easily as she finished him up and then started on her own skin.

“Hey V, would you get my back for me?” She asked politely. Agreeably, and feeling a bit like he was getting revenge, Verde rubbed the lotion onto her back while she lay down on a second beach recliner. He also hit several ticklish spots a few times, hence feeling like he was getting revenge. Once that was finished, Verde was allowed to get to his work while Sirina went to play in the ocean.

Verde looked up from time to time in order to keep an eye on the girl. She was his responsibility, after all. She may have the title of ‘contractor’, it’d been made official the first day when they signed the paperwork, but she was still a sixteen year old girl and he was the only adult (despite his cursed body) in her life.

Verde’s assistant hardly counted, being barely out of his teens. Of course he was also monitoring her via the communication device as well as his new prototype monitoring device which the girl wore over her heart. Should she become alarmed or be in danger, Verde would know as soon as her body did. Unless he happened to be looking up at the right time and see it first.

After a little while the girl returned to the beach area in front of the house. Using her Cloud flames, the girl lifted one of the Jet Skiis off it’s trailer and placed it in the water. A few moments of testing and then she returned to him.

“V! Let’s go use the Jet Skii!” She exclaimed. Verde calmly marked his place on the tablet and looked up at her.

“You go ahead, Sirina. I’ve just gotten into the flow-“ Verde started to suggest, more for forms’ sake than anything. He knew even before he opened his mouth that she would not accept the offer.

“Come _on_ V! You agreed to go on vacation with us. Come do _vacation stuff!”_ She demanded. With a long sigh, again more for forms sake than anything, Verde stood up.

“Do you want your own Jet Skii, or do you want to ride with me?” her question surprised Verde. No one had ever offered to allow him to ‘ride with them’, regardless of the vehicle. Usually he was included reluctantly, if at all. And only when necessary. As usual, though, Sirina not only broke the mold. Instead she scoffed at it, tore it up, lit the pieces on fire, and then danced gleefully on the ashes. It was probably a Cloud thing. In this case, he admitted (if only to himself) that he was touched by the offer.

“I would prefer to ride with you, if you don’t mind.” He mused. She beamed at him, not put out in the least that he’d taken her up on her offer.

“Front or back?” She asked instead.

“Front.” It would be far easier to lean back into the girl to stay on than it would be to try and cling to her from behind. Something told him she would probably be a bit of a speed demon and he didn’t want to chance being whipped off into the ocean. His Jet-Skiis were capable of going nearly as fast as his planes, and he didn’t really feel like getting water up his nose at mach fifty.

Sirina started out slow, and to his relief she didn’t attempt to go over seventy miles and hour on the Jet Skiis. When he questioned her as to why she stuck around seventy, she replied that it was her first time on Jet Skiis and she didn’t want to chance hitting another boat, person, or wildlife.

Despite his initial projections, Verde found himself enjoying the afternoon. Partway through their ride Dante joined them on another of the Jet Skiis, apparently back from his trip. The two younger people wove in and out of each other’s paths, almost doing lines of figure eights. They also did side-by-side donuts. It was an impressive example of silent communication through their bond and their communication devices.

A pang of longing surprised Verde, a longing for a Sky and a bond of his own. No sooner had the longing hit him than with a silent ‘click’ he felt a bond with Sirina snap into place. Surprised, Sirina let go of the throttle. The very sensitive Jet Skii went from Seventy miles and hour to zero. Because it was on water, the momentum kept it going, otherwise both of them would have been hurled over the handles. Sirina’s arms came down to wrap around Verde, and he could feel the welcome and love from Sirina’s end of the bond. He could also feel her worry and Dante’s shock.

With trepidation Verde turned his head until he spotted Dante. The boy had stopped and allowed momentum to carry him forward just a moment after Sirina had. So he was only an inch or two forward from their own position. Of course the boy was starting incredulously at their Sky and Verde. Sirina jerked her head towards the shore and Dante nodded. Their return to shore was full of worry from all three of them, unlike the joy of their previous ride.

Silently they parked the jet skiis up on the sand, fully beached. Verde hopped off and then followed Sirina and Dante up to the porch. The three of them settled on the wicker porch chairs. Once they were seated, they just sort of stared at each other in bewildered silence. Verde wanted to speak, but he knew from long and painful experience that he had a tendency to make bad or tense situations worse. He expected that Sirina would be the one to speak up, trying to bring peace. To his surprise the girl was looking down at her hands and twisting them together anxiously, shoulders hunched like she expected to be reprimanded. Seeing both his companions silenced for one reason or another, Dante spoke up first.

“Why are you both upset? Isn’t bonding to a Sky a good thing?” Dante asked slightly hesitantly.

“You’re not angry at me? For bonding with another Lightning?” Sirina whispered meekly, looking up at her first Lightning Guardian through her long bangs.

“No…? Why would I be?”

“Skies don’t have more than one guardian per element. Or at least, I have never heard of it happening before. Not for longer than it takes for the two of the same element to come close enough to attempt to kill each other, anyways. Typically Guardians jealously guard their Sky, especially against others of their own element. I assumed that was why Sirina was not seeking any of her other elements. Sometimes Skies will limit themselves to one Guardian at their Guardian’s urging. To their own detriment.” Verde automatically replied, used to explaining various concepts to the boy. Then he winced.

“Though I did not intend to try to….take your place or shove my way in.” Verde added quickly.

“Well those other Skies must not be as good a Sky as Ri, then. I know Ri would never reject me. She’s got plenty of room in her heart for both of us, or any other Guardians she wants. I’ve never asked her to refrain from gathering Guardians.” Dante insisted. “But…in order to get other guardians she would need to seek them out. And it’s _dangerous_ for too many other people to know about her. Especially her status as a Sky.” He continued less enthusiastically. Naturally Verde tensed, new Guardian instincts going into overdrive at the mention of danger to his Sky.

“What danger.” Verde demanded flatly. Sirina shifted uneasily, but once more it was Dante that spoke up.

“She descends from a powerful Mafia Famiglia, but they didn’t want her. They tried to hurt her, possibly even kill her. Someone warned her and Sirina was able to escape. She was only five years old when she moved to Italy and started living on the streets under a different name to escape them. She changed her looks and name, so it’s unlikely they’ll find her, but it’s still a risk. And that’s not counting Guardian hunting. If she bonds to a Guardian who has a Famiglia, which is most of them, they’ll try to tie her to their famiglia. She has no desire to become a kept Sky, only able to look out at the world through a window.” Dante outlined.

“Not to mention any famiglia would try to incorporate my line into their own, by hook or by crook. They’d want children whether or not I wanted to have children.” Sirina added quietly, staring down at her knees.

“Anyways, I’m good with both of us being her Lightning Guardians so long as you are.” Dante offered generously.  
  


“I would be a fool not to accept.” Verde informed the boy. Both the boy and their Sky accepted Verde’s words for the agreement they were.

“Come on, Ri. Don’t be down Tesoro.” Dante murmured, rising to scoop the girl into his arms and snuggle. Dante sank back down into the wicker armchair he’d been sitting in before with Sirina in his lap. Sirina turned herself partially sideways and made grabby-hands motions at Verde. Verde looked to Dante first, who nodded with a smile. One large jump and Sirina plucked Verde out of the air for a three-way cuddle.

At first it felt awkward to Verde, uncomfortable in all the worst ways of every social interaction he’d had prior to meeting these two. Then Sirina’s Sky flames welled up and surrounded all three of them. Verde went practically limp, other than where he hugged the arm Sirina’d wrapped around him. His side leaned up against Dante, who was likewise totally relaxed, only holding on to Sirina and Verde.

Next Dante’s Lightning flames, giving the feeling of being solid and constant, flowed up to join the Sky flames around them. Cautiously Verde willed his own Lightning flames to join the others. For the first time Verde noticed about his own flames what Sirina had pointed out once: they gave off the feeling of being restless and ever-flickering. Constantly in motion. She’d once joked it was Verde’s Lightning flames that made it _hard_ for him to rest. Comparing his flames to Dante’s showed what she meant.

Both Lightning flames were easily accepted by Sirina, and surprisingly by each other as well. Dante and Verde’s flames as easily in the air around them and through their separate bonds to each other just as naturally as they worked together in the labs. The only difference being that Dante seemed to be the leader here, where Verde was the one in charge in the labs. It made sense though. As Skull would have said, despite their ages Dante was Verde’s Sempai when it came to being Sirina’s Lightning Guardian. Or rather, one of her Lightning Guardians.

The rest of the day was spent quietly, enjoying each other’s flames in a place where no one else would be able to sense them.

* * *

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been thinking for a long time on writing a 'Strongest Lightning Guardian" for my Strong Guardians series, and this idea's been percolating for a while. Dante is new to that story, though. Eventually I may write this particular short story into a longer piece for the Strong Guardians series. :D 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed this short story!
> 
> ~ Wingzrooke


	3. Phobias based on past deaths (Working Title)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter has only a working title. I just couldn't think up a title I really liked for this one (so far). This was based on a prompt/idea I found on Pinterest: What if our phobias were from ways we'd died in past lives?

* * *

Sometimes, when she was born into a new world, there were strange circumstances or restrictions. One such example was the soulmate phenomenon: where every person had a soulmate and some sort of identifying mark that helped them find each other. Another was the worlds where the Black Family had a ‘Split Personality’ curse. Of course those were just two examples. In her current world, everyone had phobias. Not that she knew _why_ everyone had phobias. It must be said, it was the most neurotic world Sirina’d ever lived in. Despite that, this reality and world were actually one of the better ones.

Once more she’d been reborn as Sawada Tsunako, though this time she’d chosen to actually go by the name her mother gave her in this world. This world’s Nana, despite (seemingly) willingly marrying Iemitsu, was completely normal. And an excellent mother. Despite having to deal with Timoteo Vongola trying to seal her, Tsuna stuck around. Despite all the anxiety and phobias, this world’s reality was better than many of it’s contemporaries simply because both Iemitsu and Timoteo had the best of intentions.

Timoteo and Iemitsu were not conspiring (either together or separately) to kill one another’s children, trying to live forever, or even take out the ‘competition’ for Vongola’s line of inheritance. In this world, they genuinely were just trying to protect Tsuna. It was almost a mind-blowing concept. Also, it was stupid. But she assumed the two men didn’t know much about seals or their consequences for Skies. Knowing their intentions, however, allowed Tsuna to forgive them. When they’d tried to place the seal, she’d allowed an illusion of the seal taking to cover her flames and then pretended to faint.

That had been years ago, though, back when she’d been four years old. Now she was sixteen. Sixteen and sensing The World’s Greatest Hitman stalking her. She’d hoped that the Ninth’s children would survive this time, since Timoteo Vongola seemed to genuinely love them and want to protect them. Apparently not. Unless they were looking to consolidate the bloodlines…but she doubted it. It didn’t make sense to marry her to the ‘heir’ when they’d taken such pains to keep civilian. But back to _The Hitman_. He’d been stalking her for about a week now, and she was beginning to wonder when he would approach. Maybe he’d been sent to kill her instead of train her? But he could have done so several times over by now, if that were the case…Tsuna was hardly well-protected.

It turned out she needn’t have worried, though. The very next morning her mother told Tsuna she’d hired a tutor for Tsuna. The urge to facepalm was strong, but Tsunako resisted. It wouldn’t do to give Reborn the wrong impression. Or rather it wouldn’t do to make an even worse impression. Tsuna was well aware her grades and tests reflected rather dismal scores. She’d long since stopped bothering to try when she _had_ to attend school. More often than not she copied her Naruko personality and skipped altogether. Which had led to some truly fun spars with Hibari, the so-called “Demon Prefect”. Not that anyone else knew about those. They wouldn’t call her “dame-Tsuna” if they knew she could defeat Hibari without breaking a sweat. Much to the boy’s appreciation. She was beginning to wonder if he was trying to court her or if he just wanted to use her to get stronger. Either was more interesting than schoolwork, to be honest. She’d gone through so many iterations of basic elementary to high school learning.

“Greetings, Dame-Tsuna.” Reborn announced once he’d gotten through the usual first-meeting spiel about being a home-tutor. 

“Just Tsuna is fine, Reborn-san.” Tsunako demurred. One of the tiny man’s eyebrows rose in surprise at her boldness. “I look forward to getting to know you.” She added cheerfully, a bit of mischief twinkling in her eyes.

“You don’t look forward to working with me?” Reborn pressed, face expressionless.

“Well, to be honest, I rather suspect I’m a waste of your talents.” Tsunako replied while taking a place at the table for breakfast. She kicked out the chair next to her in invitation. An invitation with Reborn accepted. The man hopped up onto the chair and regarded her seriously, his face still blank and black eyes hard to read.

“You don’t think I’ll be able to improve your learning and grades?”

“It’s not that I think you _can’t_ it’s just that I’m capable of getting good grades if I wanted to. School is just…boring. Sooo boring. So I don’t put any effort in.” Tsuna admitted easily as her mother took her own seat across the other side of the small square table. Reborn eyed her in interest. Their conversation was paused for the prayer, and then Reborn brought the topic back.

“Aren’t you worried about getting a good job when you’re older? Or you could test out of your current level of schooling to get to more interesting learning.” She sighed, setting down her chopsticks to face Reborn more fully.

“I play with stocks to make money. I’ve already built up a sizeable fortune. And I don’t want any more of a job than that. What I really want is to be a wife and mother. With a huge family.” She admitted.

“And how do you expect to attract a worthwhile husband, one who can support you and the children, if you don’t at least have a highschool education?” Reborn prodded. Tsuna sighed.

“Well, I know what I want in a husband, and I figured my Sky flames would help ‘attract’ anyone I wanted to marry. Besides, schooling level doesn’t equate to intelligence level. You aught to know that.” She scolded. “Not that it matters, I’ll work with you because Mama wants me to.” She added with a sigh. Reborn’s left eyebrow rose once more.

“A mama’s girl, are you?” He murmured lowly. Tsuna gave him a vicious grin in response.

“That’s right, and don’t forget it. I know the value of an excellent mother like mine. I’m very lucky to have such a loving, caring, kind mother who wants the best for me and supports me in all my endeavors. One who wants the best for me, even if she has to push me into doing better by hiring a tutor.” She responded fiercely. Wisely The Hitman backed off of that route. The rest of breakfast was finished in silence, and Reborn followed her to the Genkan to exchange their indoor slippers for outside shoes.

“My real purpose here is to train you to be a Mafia Boss.” Reborn informed her as soon as they were alone in the entryway, Nana having stayed behind to clear the table and otherwise clean up.

“I figured as much. From what I’ve heard, The World’s Greatest Hitman has taken on training Mafia Heirs, and apparently now Heiresses. It was probably a matter of time since the Ninth’s children are all dead.” Tsuna replied blithely, causing the Hitman to frown.

“You are aware of the Mafia. And Flames.” He murmured to himself, still frowning. Tsuna inclined her head.

“Kind of hard not to be, when my father and his boss came here to seal my flames when I was a little girl. I made it a point to find out all about them and their work after that.” She informed him. Then they were outside the house, and headed down the sidewalk. Only a couple houses down, the “Potter Luck” struck, the gate clattering open. Out ran a the little Chihuahua, barking it’s tiny heart out as it raced at Tsunako. Unlike in previous lifetimes, Tsuna was struck with a debilitating fear. Before the tiny creature had even finished rounding the gate to come at her, Tsuna was up on the low wall, crouched and frozen there as the dog barked at her.

Her hands gripped anxiously at the brick beneath her, her heart raced so hard she feared it would burst, her lungs seized up and spots started to overcome her vision. Reborn, standing just ahead of her on the wall, looked rather stunned at the transformation from calm and level-headed young woman to frightened girl cowering up on a fencetop. He jumped down, calmed the dog, and ushered it back into its yard, then latched the gate closed. Then he returned, face and eyes neutral as he approached her.

“Breath, Tsunako.” He ordered. Tsuna tried, but it felt like despite gulping in air her lungs couldn’t absorb what was there. Reborn came cautiously towards her and placed a gentle hand on her arm. She felt his strong Sun flames flow into her arm where they were touching, and her own Sky flames grabbed desperately at Reborn’s flames.

Reborn choked a little as a bond snapped into place between them, but Tsunako only concentrated on getting the Sun Flames to her lungs. Reborn, new Guardian instincts as strong as any other Guardian she’d ever had, willed his Sun Flames to do as her Sky Flames directed. Once her lungs were ‘activated’ into absorbing the oxygen, Reborn talked Tsuna down from her terror-attack.

“A Phobia of Chihuauas?” Reborn hummed. Tsunako shook her head.

“No, a Phobia of Dogs.” She replied, panting slightly still. Reborn tilted his hat down over his eyes.

“It isn’t known outside of the Mafia, but a person’s Phobias in this lifetime come from ways a person died in a past life.” Reborn informed her grimly. Tsunako winced.

“That would explain why I’m so terrified of the Chihuahua, despite not rationally fearing it.” She huffed, irritated. Reborn sent her a questioning look, tilting his hat back to normal.

“I’ve died at least twice from dogs. I remember all my past lifetimes. The first was a bulldog, when I was about five. The other was a giant Cerberus. A three-headed dog about the size of my current house.” She explained flatly.

“A Cerberus?” Reborn repeated in interest.

“Uh-huh. Different world, different reality.” She agreed while jumping down from the tall wall. The… _incident…_ had taken quite a long time, and Tsuna wondered if it was even worth it to go to school today, she’d already missed half of her first class. She was sort of surprised Hibari hadn’t shown up and made a fuss yet.

“We’ll have to train your reaction to Phobias out of you. Unfortunately Phobias can’t be cured yet, but we can train you to work despite them.” Reborn informed her. Tsuna shrugged. It wouldn’t be pleasant, but it would be nice not to cower humiliatingly at the presence of a Chihuahua.

“What other sort of Phobias do you have?” Reborn wondered. Tsuna winced.

“Well…I’ve been reborn a lot so…you name it, it’s probably killed me.” She admitted, thinking unhappily about her phobia of papercuts. Dying fighting against Konan had apparently given her a deathly fear of papercuts in this lifetime. Which…if one didn’t know the story could be interpreted rather humiliatingly.

“I see. Well, we’ll work on them as they come up.” He promised.

* * *

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, this one's pretty short. :( I got interrupted in the middle of writing and lost the 'thread' of it. I really struggled with making my main character afraid of everything...which was probably really obvious in the writing. Sorry. :( 
> 
> The next one I post should be better. :)
> 
> ~Wingzrooke


	4. Feral

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A "Feral" Sky is a danger to themselves and others. They need 'stabilizing' by bonding with a full set of guardians.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The idea for this story sprung from another fic I read (though I don't remember the title or author. Sorry! I will add to this note once I am reminded or find the story again). I borrow from that story the idea of Skies going Feral, but the rest of the plot is very different. 
> 
> I wanted to explore the idea of what might cause a Sky to go Feral, how it might be solved, and what it might be like living with a Feral Sky. Somehow that morphed into the story below.^_^' I'm rather fond of it, though.
> 
> In this story, The Arcobaleno curse has not yet happened (though it isn't ruled out that it might happen later). Lal Mirch and Colonello are still working for COMSUBIN.
> 
> Sorry for the long notes.
> 
> Hope you enjoy.

* * *

* * *

“Modern war brings with it modern weapons of defence and attack. One of the weapons of defence has been the mine. The enemy, since his retreat . . . has made full use of this weapon and has laid down many thousands from El Alamein, through Sicily and Italy, up to his present positions.” — Major J. S. Reakes, Civil Affair Section General Report on Mine clearance in Italy, dated 7 April 1945 

* * *

The second time his life changed forever, Colonello was running a standard mission. He and his team were busy clearing mines on a farm in Novalesa, near the border with France. Unlike the rest of his team (excepting Lal), Colonello had an advantage when it came to clearing mines. Mainly, Colonello didn’t have to worry about them exploding on him. He had a trick up his sleeve that only Lal could replicate. The two of them were able to send out their rain flames to slow any mines from activating in the field they were working in. They could also slow an explosion in progress, of course, but they were trying to stop the explosions before they started.

After finishing up his section in the current area, Colonello wandered off to the side, hoping to get out of sight of his comrades before taking a leak. He’d almost gone as far as he thought he might need to when he came upon a young woman lying on the ground. All civilians had been cleared from the area, as far as Colonello knew, so her presence was both a surprise and suspicious. Most of his suspicions vanished as soon as they’d come, for the woman was heavily injured as well as naked and tied up. Colonello circled around the girl from a distance, searching for any signs of a trap. There were no such signs to be found.

“Generale, I’ve found an unconscious girl. Assumed to be a civilian. She’s naked and bound, and also heavily injured. I’ve already scouted the area, and there’s no sign of this being a trap. She’s breathing, so I’m going to check her pulse.” Colonello reported.

“Very well, Colonello, but be cautious. It could still be a trap of some sort. Does it look like she’s been injured by a mine?” his Generale, Lal Mirch, responded.

“Negative, Generale. They seem to be from being beaten, possibly some minor torture as well. Mostly bruises and cuts. Some swelling on the face, as well as around the ankles and wrists.” He reported. Then he moved in to take her pulse. Gently he reached down and scooped up her wrist. The moment his hand made contact with her, the girl gave a soft whine deep in her throat.

That was all the warning Colonello got before Sky flames burst from the young woman and crashed down on him like a vengeful Tsunami. The girl’s eyes snapped open, revealing eerie orange-colored glowing irises. The girl’s eyes stayed the same color, even as Colonello’s own flames flowed out of him in response to the threat. Their flames met, Colonello’s seeking to pacify rather than harm. To his further surprise, a bond spun into existence between them the instant their flames touched.

The shock of a bond being created did not cause the girl to snap out of the state she was in, and Colonello cursed loudly. Because between her eyes glowing with Sky flames and the wild feeling in her flames, the girl had to be a feral Sky. Although the condition was almost unheard of nowadays (at least in Italy), the Mafia still knew what a Feral Sky was. A Sky whose conscious mind was not in control like it normally would be. One who reacted solely on their flame instincts. Colonello was lucky to be alive. If a Feral Sky didn’t like someone, they tended to attack until the person was either dead or otherwise no longer in the Sky’s presence.

“What’s wrong?” Lal’s voice demanded over the radio. Colonello had never unclipped his radio, so every noise he made was still being transmitted. Including his cursing. Abruptly his words cut off.

“Lal. Eggplant. Eggplant, Lal!” He called urgently. Egg being Lal and Colonello’s agreed-upon codeword for Flame shenanigans, and Egg _plant_ the codeword for bonding with a Sky. There was some confusion from other members of their team, radioing over to ask what “Eggplant” was code for, but both Rains ignored the questions. Lal reached his position at a flat-out run.

Colonello surprised the both of them when he snarled at her as she came into sight. Skidding to a stop, Lal held up her hands in a placating manner.

“Easy, Col. I’m just here to help. You want my jacket? That way you could cover her top with my jacket and her bottom with yours.” Lal suggested soothingly, using her ‘erratic/frightened civilian’ voice on him. Colonello looked at Lal blankly for a moment while he struggled with the new instincts that had awoken. Logically, he knew Lal meant Colonello’s Sky no harm and could still be trusted. His new instincts, however, said that everyone was a threat to his Sky.

“Yes, please. Just toss it over.” Colonello finally grit out. Lal made short work of removing her jacket and tossing it. Colonello caught the jacket one-handed and made short work of dressing his Sky.

The young woman allowed Colonello to wrap the jacket around her and maneuver her arms through the holes. She didn’t really react, other than standing when he asked if she could. Once Lal’s jacket was on the girl, Colonello wrapped his jacket around her waist, zipping it as far as he could so it would stay on and then tying the sleeves around her waist. Colonello was tall and broad enough that it worked pretty well to cover the girl, thought it was by no means haute couture.

“She’s Feral, Lal. Keep your distance.” Colonello warned his commander. She nodded her understanding of the situation and stayed where she was. Lal Mirch did not wish to upset her friend and underling, or inspire the Sky to attack.

“We should get your Sky to a doctor…” Lal commented, and Colonello had to resist the urge to bear his teeth. Seeing his distaste written all over his face, despite not bearing his teeth, Lal continued “She might have internal bleeding or something from her injuries. I know a doctor who is flame-aware and won’t ask questions.” Her assurances calmed Colonello a little, and he eventually agreed to take the girl to the nearby doctor.

Colonello gently encircled his Sky with his arm, as she was beginning to look a little shaky on her feet. Then he followed Lal back to where their company’s vehicles were parked. Thankfully Lal had come to the sight separately from the rest, and she’d used a motorcycle to do it. Colonello helped his Sky onto the motorcycle and then climbed on in front of her. Once her arms were securely around his waist, Colonello took a card from Lal with the address of the doctor in question. He revved the engine twice, then spun the motorcycle in a circle on its back wheel before taking off for the highway.

* * *

******Time Skip******Time Skip******Time Skip******Time Skip******Time Skip******

* * *

Half a year later:

Despite six months having passed since Colonello first found his Sky, she had still yet to be stabilized. Stabilizing a Sky was a fairly simple process, as it involved gathering a full set of Guardian Elements. The process was made a little more complicated when a Sky was Feral, but all the more necessary as Stabilization was the only known cure to a Sky’s Feral state. Which was utterly unsurprising, since going without Guardians for too long after becoming active was what triggered a Sky into going Feral in the first place. After bonding with his Sky, and allowing his instincts to settle somewhat, Colonello had immediately begun the search for possible Guardians.

Despite the many elements he’d brought to test against his Sky (all unknowing of why they were in her presence, naturally), she had yet to gain even one more Guardian. Colonello was about ready to tear his hair out. Not only was he a single Guardian, with all the difficulty that came from guarding a Feral Sky alone, but he also had to constantly bring strangers into her presence thereby at least doubling the risk to her.

Thankfully he’d learned that his Sky was only about half Feral. Somehow. His current theory was that she had a secondary Flame of some sort that she was leaning on to help her function better than a regular Feral Sky would. He’d yet to see or feel any evidence of another Flame, mind, but if she was using them internally he might not be able to. He called her only half Feral because she retained the ability to answer some simple questions, although often she didn’t seem to feel the need to. She could also use the bathroom, shower, dress, and eat on her own. He was extremely grateful for these abilities, as simple as they may seem.

For one thing, it meant Colonello didn’t have to assist her with these chores. He would have, of course, if it had been necessary. Thankfully, though, it was not. The second reason he was grateful for her ability to accomplish simple tasks, lay with her ability to answer simple questions. This was, after all, how he’d learned her name. He’d been chattering at her in an effort to soothe his own nerves as they waited in an exam room that very first day, mostly nonsense. He told her all the basics about himself, about where they were, and threw in a few questions as well just in case. The only thing she responded to was what he should call her.

“Ri.” It was the only word she spoke that day, and he’d nearly missed it. He’d almost gone on to continue nattering, not expecting an answer from a Feral Sky. So, yes, he was grateful. Very grateful indeed. There were many such small bright spots in his bond and new life with his Sky. Colonello was grateful for these bright spots, because it was hard having to resign from COMSUBIN to take care of his Sky. Adjusting to civilian life once more had been hard, too. Hardest of all, though, was the ever-ongoing search for Guardians.

Colonello had already introduced Ri to all of the free (unbonded) Elements he could find and get information on which seemed trustworthy. Including a couple that were part of a Famiglia. While he sat at the table, elbows on the table and joined hands propping up his chin, Colonello considered his next step. Obviously he couldn’t give up. Not when _his Sky’s_ sanity and life was on the line. But how to find free Elements that she would accept? She had not, unfortunately, answered any of the questions about what she would look for or accept in Guardians.

Truthfully, he knew what he needed to do next. Colonello had been avoiding calling Lal Mirch for some time, but odds were high that the woman would know someone who could help him find more prospective Guardians. He looked over at his Sky, who was sitting silently in an armchair and gazing blankly out the window to the city beyond their small apartment. It was no way for a person to live. Finally buckling down, Colonello picked up the phone from the table and dialed. Hopefully Lal was in-country and off-mission right now. Three rings and Lal answered the phone.

“Hello?”

“Hi, Lal. It’s Col.” Colonello began, and quickly outlined his problem to her. The woman was as kind as she ever was, thankfully.

“It sounds a bit like the elements she’s met aren’t strong enough to tempt her into a bond. I’ve been doing a bit of research. Apparently a Feral Sky doesn’t bond the same way a non-Feral Sky bonds. A non-Feral Sky will want to meet an element, and spend time together. Maybe even run a few missions together. From getting to know each other, a Sky learns whether they want to bond with the Element or not. Then a bond gradually grows between them, as you know. With Feral Skies, bonding is all done through instincts. Their Sky flames will assess the other person’s flames for strength. Then, so long as the two souls aren’t so opposite as to induce loathing in the Sky if they weren’t Feral, the two flames will bond instantly. If she isn’t showing any interest at all, it means the elements weren’t strong enough.” Lal informed him. Colonello winced.

“I’ve introduced her to some pretty strong elements…” He hummed doubtfully.

“Well, why don’t you set up a group of the strongest people in the Underworld of each flame type except Rain? You can introduce them to her, and if she still doesn’t show interest you should take her to see a Flame and Bonding Specialist.”

“I guess I could. Do you think the strongest free elements would even be _interested_ in meeting a Sky? Especially a Feral Sky? I know normal Feral Skies are known for killing anyone they don’t like, although thankfully I don’t have to worry about that with my own Sky. She’s not shown any urge to kill elements she’s not interested in, even the really pushy ones.”

“We all want a Sky, Col.” Lal sighed. “Especially those of us who don’t have one. Just in case, though, you could run some missions for them, and pay them for their time and capabilities.” She added.

“How would I even go about finding out who the strongest elements in the Underworld are?” There was silence on the other end of the line while Lal thought his question over. Colonello leaned back in his chair, content to wait. Honestly, he was just grateful Lal Mirch was willing to help him hash this out, despite Ri not being her Sky. Sometimes he wondered if Lal must _burn_ at the thought that it could have been her to discover the unconscious Sky that day, instead of Colonello. If she did, Lal gave no hint of it.

“I’m not sure. I do, however, know an information broker that could find out. Viper is said to be _The Best_ Information Broker out there. If anyone knows who the strongest Elements are, or can find out, it will be Viper.”

“How do I contact them?” As Colonello wrote down the phone number Lal recited, he wondered what sort of a person “Viper” was. He would probably find out soon. Once he had all the information down, including Viper’s general price list for services, Colonello bid goodbye to his old commander and comrade and hung up.

Carefully he dialed the new number, making sure to memorize it as the phone rang.

“Time is money.” A voice of indeterminate gender rang out as soon as they answered.

“Hello, I’m seeking Viper for some information.” Colonello recited.

“You know my prices?” The person, presumably Viper, asked briskly. Colonello nodded, and immediately felt silly. Viper couldn’t see him, after all.

“I do. I’m not certain which price group would include my request, however.” Colonello admitted.

“What are you looking for?” The person sighed, as though they got this question often and found people stupid for not being able to follow the price chart.

“I’m looking for a list of the Underworld’s strongest free Elements. I’m putting together a team to run some missions and I only want the strongest flames. They must also be active.” Colonello informed the information specialist. There was a pause, as though the person on the other end was either shocked or going through their price list in their mind. Either way, they only paused for a few moments.

“It will take me a week to gather the requested information. The price for this information is 1,250,000 Lira, up front. Can you afford that amount?” Viper’s words were factual, without any inflection at all. Since he was an probably an unknown to this information broker, who was (according to Lal) infamous for their high prices, Colonello didn’t take offense at the question.

“Yes.” He answered, privately grateful for all the high-paying missions he’d taken in the past. The information broker gave Colonello directions on how to have the money transferred to their bank, and then hung up. Colonello stared at the phone for a moment.

“Bye.” He muttered belatedly. Then he shook his head and contacted Lal once more. She was still on his account as able to make transfers or withdrawals if he was unable to. It came in handy now that he didn’t want to leave his Sky alone, or worse, take her out into public and danger.

* * *

While he waited for the list to come, Colonello tried to come up with a list of tasks that the strongest Flames in the world wouldn’t find insulting to be hired for. People who were the strongest, and/or the best in their field, needed challenges. So what sort of challenges would bring in the flames? It depended, of course, on what their specializations and jobs were. Without knowing that, he couldn’t finalize any plans. He could, however, come up with some general ideas.

First and foremost, he’d want them to take on a few ‘body guarding’ missions. Any Guardian worth their salt should know how to handle being a body guard, after all. He would also want some ‘hits’ or assassination missions. Although he didn’t think his Sky was that type of leader, he couldn’t say for sure. A Guardian should be able to handle any job their Sky gives them.

He would also want them to collect information, preferably information that would be hard to get. Like industrial espionage type secrets, or even a mid-level Famiglia’s secrets. At some point, there should be a cook-off (if only because Colonello didn’t want to be stuck as the only cook). There should also be some sort of driving contest in all sorts of vehicles, maybe a relay race?

As he continued to list his thoughts, Colonello kept an eye on his Sky. Mostly she just sat and stared out the same window, but she also seemed to have an uncanny way of vanishing if he wasn’t watching her. Granted, it was usually only to the bathroom or bedroom, but Colonello couldn’t afford the stress of not knowing where she’d gone.

 _“The real questions,”_ He thought somewhat morosely _“Are where will I get the money to fund all this, eventually my savings will run out, even if I have a ridiculous amount saved up now. And where will I find the missions I’m going to ‘assign’ us?”_ He’d already bothered Lal enough, he thought. This time he was determined to figure out a solution on his own.

After a good hour of brainstorming at the dining room table, during which many ideas, questions, and possible tasks were written down on his paper, Colonello hit upon a partial solution. A way to find jobs and payment for missions that involved others. The idea had come to him while brainstorming ways to make money. For a few months now, Colonello had been looking for work outside the ‘regular’ job force. Now that he no longer worked for COMSUBIN, he needed a job where he could choose his hours and not be too far from home.

After doing some research of his own, Colonello found that members of the Underworld could find various jobs at a particular bar in Mafia Land. The jobs were ranked according to difficulty, came from all over the Underworld, and one didn’t have to be part of a particular Famiglia or Alliance to take the jobs. Sort of a black market job hiring center.

Colonello would be able to cherry pick jobs from Mafia Land Services, and the payout from Mafia Land would help ‘subsidize’ his payments to the Elements he was about to hire. That way all of their payment didn’t need to come out of his pocket. He would still need to look around for people taking jobs _outside_ Mafia Land, of course, but it was a good beginning.

* * *

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybe interesting info:
> 
> For the Money: I did some research. Back during the time of this story, they used 'Lira' in Italy (as far as I can find). I couldn't find the US $ to Italian ₤ conversion, so I used the modern-day conversion. As follows:  
> (Forewarning: I'm TERRIBLE at math).
> 
> Lira to Dollars: $1 = ₤625 (Lira)  
> Vipers First price: What is $1.00 in 1949 worth in today's money? Adjusted for inflation, $1.00 in 1949 is equal to $10.66 in 2020. Annual inflation over this period was 3.39%.<  
> Therefore, basically, add a zero. If Viper’s prices as $20,000.00 today, then it would be $2,000 back then. (Probably incorrect math. Oops!). 2,000 X ₤625= ₤1,250,000.
> 
> I wasn't sure exactly what a 'huge' price would be back then, especially for Viper whose prices were already way above everyone else. Hopefully I did it justice anyways.
> 
> Also, sorry for the multiple updates on same chapters, I had a really hard time today getting all the notes on the correct chapters and titles for each chapter. Sorry!
> 
> ~ Wingzrooke


	5. Mafia High AU: Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sirina is back and has been born in Italy this time, still in a flame-world. She's about to head to Mafia High School for the first time ever! "Undercover" as a Cloud. 
> 
> She's not the only one there, though. There are some very familiar (if younger) faces among the upperclassmen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time Period: Pre-Arcobaleno curse but sometime after WWII. Ottava reigns, if that helps.

* * *

* * *

Having lived so many of the same lifetimes, it had come as something of a shock to be born forty years before her ‘normal’ timeline in a world of flame users, Sirina reflected. It wasn’t just the timeline she lived in that was shocking, though. The eight Head of Vongola, Ottova Daniela, was still in her prime and power. At the current time (she was sixteen now), Daniela’s son, who would someday become the ninth Head of Vongola, Timoteo Vongola, was currently a teenager. Just a year older than Sirina herself, and both about to enter high school. It was the first lifetime where Sirina had been born in Italy, and of full Italian descent. One of the rare ones where she wasn’t related to the Vongola at all. Neither was she a Potter or Black. In fact this world seemed to completely lack magic and magical people so far as Sirina could tell.

Unfortunately, during the course of figuring out what type of world she’d been born into, Sirina had drawn attention to herself. In this lifetime, she’d been born to a rather common couple by the family name of Allegro. Her own name was, ironically, Donna Violetta Allegro. They were a family of famous musicians (with no Mafia connections that she knew of), and her parents were rarely home. Which was why she was meeting with representatives from the Rome School of Higher Education by herself. A prestigious school which took students only by invitation. More colloquially known as ‘Mafia High School’.

“Miss Allegro, you were recommended to our school by the Vindice as a young person of strong _will_. Do you know what that means?” Miss Baio, one of the two representatives of Mafia High, asked briskly.

“Yes, Miss Baio. I was recommended because of my Sky Flames. I am aware of the Mafia, although I am not currently more than Mafia-adjacent.” Siri—Donna. She needed to remember to call herself by her new name. Fifteen years and one would think she’d be used to the new name by now. But Donna hadn’t spent a lot of time with her parents since she was a small child, so it was hard sometimes to remember. Especially since she had a tendency to think of herself as Sirina regardless of what name she had to respond to in her different lifetimes. Especially when by herself.

“Very well. I trust you also understand it is a Vindice requirement that all teens with strong flames and without a Famiglia must attend the Rome School of Higher Education. I will tell you right now, with Sky flames and a name like ‘Donna’, you are going to have a very hard time. I would suggest enrolling you under your middle name.” Miss Baio informed the school’s new pupil. Si—Donna winced, she could see how a name like ‘Donna’ would be a bit embarrassing in a world where Donna Ottava Daniella existed. People would assume she was ‘getting above her station’, as a commoner without a Famiglia.

The teasing would probably never stop, even if she married a Don and became a Donna of a Famiglia in truth. Which she wouldn’t. Who wanted to be introduced as ‘Donna Donna’? Perhaps something silly to worry about, but she’d have enough to worry about without belonging to a Famiglia. Especially since she has Sky flames and Famiglia would kidnap, kill, and push their children at her to try and get her to join their Famiglia. A Sky may be considered royalty in the Mafia, but they were treated more like celebrities. Sought after and given not a moment of peace unless hidden away.

“My middle name is Violetta. I do not wish for the general populace of the school to know I have Sky flames….” Sirina began tentatively. The man who’d come with Miss Baio, Mr. Morelli, waved away Violetta’s words. Internally Sirina, er, Violetta – sighed. Now she had to get used to using yet another name. There was one thing to be said for the repetitiveness of her previous lifetimes. At least she’d gotten used to being called Tsunako, Naruko, or Sirina. Now she had to adjust to two different names. Blech.

“We don’t tell people what flames each student has. We leave that choice up to students and their Famiglias. Simply don’t tell anyone or wear a Sky’s colors. There are some teachers who may try to push the issue, but you can inform the Principal if they push too hard.” Mr. Morelli informed Sirina…Donna…Violetta. Maybe if she thought of herself as Donna Violetta (Lady Violet), it would be easier to remember?

“Although it will be listed in your official file, so teachers can look up the information, they cannot share that information without the student or Famiglia’s permission. If a teacher does leak your Flame-type, it is grounds for immediate dismissal and should be reported right away.” Miss Baio noted. Her worries eased, Violetta allowed the two representatives to work through the paperwork. They took down her ‘official primary Flame type’, her general information, her full name, her parent’s contact information and an emergency contact, and other such information.

All the while, Violetta was turning over an idea in her mind. A way to avoid people wondering what her primary flame is. Sure, they _could_ look it up, but if she proudly displayed a flame-type, then they wouldn’t think it worth the effort. She’d been both Mafia-adjacent and a part of the Mafia enough times to know Mafia Flame-type convention. As a bonus, she even had two secondary flames to choose from to represent. The real question was which flame she wanted to broadcast. There were pluses and minuses to letting others know about any of her flames. In the end, she decided to go with her Cloud flame.

“Now, the last matter is that of housing. Normally a person’s Famiglia or Family takes care of where they are housed. In your case, however, I believe you live with your Grandmother and have no home in Rome?” Mr. Morelli asked, dark brown eyes meeting Violetta’s green eyes seriously.

“Yes, that’s right. However my parents are famous musicians. They have enough money to buy or rent a place for me to stay in Rome. I will talk to them.” Violetta assured them.

“Very well. Should you need help, however, please contact us. There are Famiglia who offer to host young Flame-active teens with … _potential_ , as well as a dormitory on the school grounds. Also, if your parents or Grandmother are not willing to allow you to attend, we have a number of Mist Flames on our Staff who will _adjust_ that attitude so you can attend without needing to distance yourself from your family.” Miss Baio offered. Violetta nodded solemnly.

“Thank you for the offer, but I’m sure my parents will be thrilled I was accepted to such a prestigious high school in our nation’s capitol, and one for the gifted at that. You _do_ have courses that teach music, do you not? My parents will expect me to continue taking music lessons for instruments and voice, regardless of which school I attend. Likely they will expect that I was invited to a school for the gifted due to my gift with music.”

“We do, indeed. Music is also one of the tracks you can choose, in your second year. Would you like us to put you down as intending to choose the Music Track?”

“Yes, please.”

“Very well. Are there any other questions or concerns you have?” Ms. Baio finished up. Violetta shook her head.

“Very good. Our contact information is in the packet of information we gave you at the start. Please contact us should you think of any.” Thus concluded, Violetta saw them to the door and locked it behind them. Thankfully the meeting had ended before her Grandmother’s usual naptime did. Not that the old woman would have woken yet, Violetta had used a bit of Mist Flame to help the woman fall (and stay) asleep just before the representatives came. Thankfully it was all well within the normal timeframe for her Grandmother’s nap. Although not usually the entire time.

Silently she pushed those thoughts aside. For now, she had to plan her outfits around the color purple. No doubt she’d get made fun of for being a Cloud wearing purple named Violetta, but she had the feeling her fellow students would irritate her enough to make warning them of her Cloudy nature a necessary precaution. As the mafia saying went: knowingly irritate a Cloud and you deserve what happens to you.

* * *

As Violetta expected, her parents were delighted with her invitation to a prestigious and exclusive school. She’d debated telling her parents of the boarding option at the school…but Violetta was unsure whether she would be able to tolerate living so close to other students. It would probably depend on how many other students used the boarding option. On contacting Miss Baio, she was informed there were a considerable amount of teens (most orphans or runaways) who used the dormitories. In the long run her need to not ‘crowd’ with a bunch of unknown teenagers and her worries about her Sky Attraction causing problems with long exposure decided her against telling her parents about the dormitories.

In a stroke of luck, her parents had a break from their last tour and their next one at the beginning of the summer break before she would start high school. Originally they were simply going to rent a place, but something about that had set off Violetta’s intuition. It took some time, but she talked them around to actually buying a house in Rome. It wouldn’t be immediately in the inner city, and it would only be a two bedroom. Of course Mr and Mrs Allegro only agreed on the condition they would be able to stay at the flat between tours if they wished. A flat in Rome cost as much as an entire house in the country, after all. Previous to this only Violetta’s maternal Grandmother (also her only surviving grandparent), Lucia Bernardi, owned a home.

So they took a week in April to go house-hunting in Rome. Despite the plethora of options the real estate agent took them too, at the end of the week they whittled the list down to three options. The third option, despite the beautiful two patios, was discarded because neither of the female Allegros like the outside. The remaining two were both two bedroom, one bath flats.

One was in a two-level orange building surrounded by a six foot tall orange wall, and a gated entryway. It had a small grassy yard area with a small area of trees at the back. It had a fairly deep tub with a handheld shower. There was hardly a straight line in the place. It also had two patios, and a separate laundry room. One of the patios was barely came out from the house far enough to fit a chair, but was a bit longer. The other came out a good five feet from the house and ran the entire length of one side of the house. It also had an outside counter with three cupboards underneath and one above.

The other was a three-level yellow building with a gated entryway underneath an arch with greenery growing over it. This flat was also in front of a large green park, behind the park was a road with a green field and trees on the other side of a road, giving the best view out of all the options. This one would be Violetta’s favorite, except that everything was bare walls and hanging wires and the windows were all small. It’s balcony, however, wrapped around two sides of the building.

They took another two weeks to think and discuss their options, and finally decided to get the one in the yellow building. It was only about twelve hundred square feet, but since Violetta would basically be living there on her own they decided that would be fine. Unless she got a roommate, but it would still be big enough. The yellow flat also came with roof access from a door directly next to the flat.

While her parents handled the purchasing of their new home, Violetta worked on getting her moped and motorcycle license. She wasn’t old enough to get a straight up car and vehicle license, for which she’d need to be eighteen. However she was old enough to get a vespa license, which required one to be at least fourteen years old, and a motorbike license, which a person sixteen and older could obtain.

It wasn’t hard, she merely had to take a course at a local driving school, then take a written and practical test. All three were passed with flying colors, and Violetta received her license about a month later. It came to her new mailbox, and she picked up when she and her parents moved there for the end of the summer.

Waiting to move had been an agony. The time felt both too long and too short. She was excited to move, but would miss living in the country. Already her nerves were jangling with the thought of being surrounded by other people twenty-four/seven. Yet another confirmation of her choice to get ‘her own’ place was the correct one.

They moved from her Grandmother’s house to the new flat at the beginning of June. Since she was the only one living there full time, her parents allowed Violetta the biggest bedroom, located between the laundry room and kitchen and on the very corner of the house. Violetta loved it. It had double doors leading from the kitchen into the bedroom, as well as double doors out to the porch. There was a regular sized door from the bedroom to the laundry room, too. The bathroom was on the other side of the living room, next to the smaller bedroom, but Violetta felt like it was worth the sacrifice of having the bathroom farther away.

Besides, when her parents were not there, she simply set a Mist construct on the door between the bedroom and laundry room. Then the doorway to the laundry room would open according to which room in the house Violetta wanted. She could walk through the doorway and enter the bathroom, the other bedroom, the kitchen, or even out her front door. She might even connect it and another Mist working to the doorway of the building. Stairs? What stairs?

Their first purchases, naturally, were two beds. Her parents chose two separate single beds in the European style, while Violetta chose a queen sized bed. She could have gotten a single and changed the size with a spell, but her parents didn’t know of Violetta’s magic. She planned to keep it that way. Her parents, after all, were Catholic and had strong opinions about people who practiced ‘witchcraft’. Regardless of whether the person in question actually had magic or not.

Next they bought the basic appliances: a fridge, a washer and dryer, a kitchen table, and some cabinetry. They even bought Violetta a dishwasher! It must be noted, the Allegros doted on and spoiled their only child, even if they were gone much of the time.

“Well, Cuore Mia, is there anything else you can think of that you might like?” Her father, Francesco Allegro, asked her once everything previously purchased had been delivered and set up.

“We could use some porch furniture. Also a couch, and a television. I’d like to get new school clothes, if possible. Are the utility bills set up to auto-pay? We still need to purchase a moped or motorcycle for me. Will I have a set parking spot for my moped or will it be first-come first-serve?” Her mother nodded along with Violetta’s words.

“All excellent ideas and questions, Donna-mia.” Her mother, Carlotta Allegro, agreed.

“All utility bills are set up to be paid directly by the bank, so you shouldn’t need to worry about any bills. Plus the flat was bought outright. No loan payments. Any vehicle of yours or your visitors can park in any of the building’s parking spots. First come, first serve.” Her father reassured her.

“We can go clothes shopping tomorrow, and then the day after that you can go look for a moped or vehicle with your father. That leaves the last three days for sight-seeing as a family, and then that night for a big family dinner. After that your father and I will be leaving on tour again.” Carlotta suggested.

“I’m going by Violetta now, Mama.” Violetta reminded her mother, who huffed (somewhat) playfully about children who didn’t appreciate the name their parents gave them. Her mother’s plan was shortly agreed too, and the family worked on getting dinner put together.

* * *

Getting ready for the first day of school was easy, if a little nerve wracking. Despite many lifetimes being associated with the Mafia, Violetta had never been to the Mafia School. Not even to visit. She had, however, heard the rumors. Some of them directly from people she trusted, like a few versions of Gokudera Hayato. The ones that were her Guardians.

She dressed with care. It turned out the school had a uniform, although there were many possible (and recommended) alterations. She wore the ‘basic’ uniform, as required: a white (short or long-sleeved) white blouse, black slacks with belt or a black skirt. She had the girl’s black suit coat and tie as well, of course. Minus any of the embroidery or pins that would signify a Famiglia or Alliance affiliation. She did have the embroidery that represented the school she attended, though. That was embroidered over her heart. Then, of course, the girl’s specific footwear: nylons and heels. They apparently wore the heels everywhere, including gym class. Violetta was not excited for that part.

She bought her heels at a Mafia store with specially reinforced the shoes. The tip of the shoe had hidden metal, to protect against crushing or stubbing, and also made the wicked point at the front deadly when kicking someone. As a bonus, there was a little Mist-trick which released a hidden blade from either the toe or the tip of the stiletto heel. They were black on the outside with a violet colored lining that just barely showed when worn. Her belt was the same color of purple, and bought at the same store.

She’d chosen the short-sleeved white blouses until winter, because it was still a bit hot out for her. Her version of the suit jacket had violet piping around the front and neck area, just above the cuffs, the top of the pockets, and the bottom of the coat. Her tie was the same violet color as all the rest of the accents. She left her mid-back length black hair down, where it hung straight as usual. She did, in a rare move for herself in any lifetime, put on makeup.

Each press of powder or swipe of mascara was applied with precision. It was said a girl’s makeup was her invisible armor. Part of that idea being that you shouldn’t cry while wearing makeup, because the makeup (and especially the mascara) would run. Most of the world didn’t have waterproof makeup yet. The mafia, as usual, was ahead here. Even so, she felt it might be important to have even this type of armor in the coming conflicts. And there _would be_ conflicts. It was a Mafia School. While the school and the area around it were considered ‘neutral ground’, inside the school was another matter.

It was supposed to be a training ground for young heirs, heiresses, and other members of the mafia. Which is why Violetta cheated outrageously. Since she anticipated going to battle in these outfits, Violetta added moderations like the ones in her battle outfits from other lifetimes.

First and foremost, she inked storage seals into her palms using Mist flames and magic. Thus, the ink was there but no-one would see it. Two similar seals were added to her ankles and between her thighs. The seals all led to the same ‘hammer space’ she’d designed many lifetimes ago. This way, however, she’d be able to access the things in her sealing space regardless of how she was tied up. She even added on her left inside cheek just in case. The seals were all personalized so only she could see and access them. She could open them with blood and chakra, like they used in the elemental nations, blood and magic, or magic and chakra.

As soon as she’d received her school clothes, back in July, Violetta modified them as well. With black thread, Violetta had added the same seals to the inside of her jacket, blouse, skirt, and pants (both inside the pants and inside the pants pockets). Every pre-existing pocket was charmed bottomless and weightless. Her bra was also charmed to be weightless, because she knew the pain of backaches from the weight of her chest. She hoped this would solve the problem. It also had the bonus of making her boobs look a little perkier.

Her heels got permanent cushioning charms applied to the inside, so it felt like she was floating along. It should make up for having to do gym in heels. She also charmed all of her clothes and accessories so they would make no sound. Not even the heels on wooden floors. All of her clothing got temperature charms, so she would always feel the perfect temperature regardless of weather. The skirts were charmed so no one would be able to flick them up, and a simple Mist application made it so no one could see her underwear either way.

Today she’d chosen to wear the skirt, much like she was wearing makeup. She also had a messenger style bag, more of a prop than anything. There was another ‘hammer space’ seal on the inside of the bag, and it was charmed for a certain weight. It would be suspicious if someone else picked it up and the bag weighed nothing, after all. Clouds didn’t naturally have the ability to make something weightless. She’d actually placed a couple text books into the bag, two to be exact, along with a notebook, pencils, pens, and a ruler.

Thus ‘armed’, Violetta exited from her bedroom through the Mist-door and straight out of the building. She felt the doorway revert as soon as she closed the door. In the parking space closest to the door, the parking spot being surrounded by a Mist barrier and magic so no one else would take that spot, waited her beautiful black motorcycle. Normally her license was good for any motorcycle up to 50cc’s. Violetta may have… _cheated_ a little. The motorcycle’s engine definitely had more cc’s than that. More than that to the tune of 1500ccs. Her paperwork all said 50cc, though, and no cop would be able to realize it had more capacity than her license should allow. Thank goodness for Mist Flames and Magic.

Her beautiful bike was black with silver accents, for two reasons. The biggest of those reasons: they were her favorite non-rainbow colors. The second reason was ensuring no one could pick out which bike was hers by color alone. She also put a Magic barrier on the Motorcycle so no one would be able to connect her to the bike unless she told them verbally which one was hers. It also wouldn’t get towed, ticketed, run into, or otherwise tampered with or damaged regardless of where she parked it. She loved magic and flames.

The drive to school was quiet, because they didn’t have Ipods yet. She had a Mist working that could play music, but she hadn’t gotten around to adding it to her helmet yet. She had, however, added a silencing charm to the helmet so she didn’t have to listen to traffic and wind. The drive took all of five minutes, rather than the twenty minutes it should have taken. Yay for fast motorcycles! The week before school Violetta had picked out a parking spot and surrounded it in a barrier of Magic, much like the one at her apartment. It would be nice to have a ‘reserved’ spot. So when she got to the school today, Violetta drove right up and parked close to the school and front doors.

On that same visit, Violetta sent some of her Mist/Cloud and chakra Solid Clones to explore the school and map it. Supposedly students were only supposed to enter the school on the first day of their first year. So that no one else knew how to navigate the school except staff and students. However Violetta knew that Famiglias taught their children the layouts of the school, and she was a ninja with Mist and magic. Now, as she entered the school, her timetable and the Mist Map she’d compiled caused a sort of Mist version of ‘Google Maps: Street View’ to pop up around her.

This meant she looked out and saw the path she needed to go highlighted on the walls to either side of her (glowing in Indigo, naturally), and a series of little arrows showed in flat Indigo on the floor in front of her feet. She’d come early, as first years were required to do. Most of the first years were still in the line-up of Limos in the drop off zone, though. Violetta carefully maneuvered herself to the outside of the group of first years entering the building and followed as they meandered their way to the auditorium for their entrance ceremony.

Inside the auditorium was typical tiered seating, though there was much more space between the curved rows of seats than she was used to. The seats started high at the back where they entered and got lower until they were on the same level as the top of the stage. Their was a sign with a map on it next to the doors to the auditorium. It looked like a seating arrangement to help students learn their first period class. Whoever arranged the seating had put Violetta directly in the middle of the students. Likely based on the registered flame of Sky. No Cloud worth their salt would sit in the middle of a group of unknowns in the middle of a bigger group of unknowns. Especially when they were all flame active.

Since she’d decided to establish herself as a typical Cloud, Violetta went to the group she’d been assigned, but sat three seats away from the edge. Her assigned seat had been in the middle of seventeen students. The others looked about to protest, then caught sight of all her purple accents. They decided not to speak. She felt a little smug at that as she waited for the ceremony to start. Especially as she could see from the corner of her eyes as her classmates looked for and did not find any pins or embroidery that established her as part of a Famiglia.

The friendlier members of their class started an exchange of names. Violetta took ‘snapshots’ of each person’s face with her Mist flames, penned a name on each of them and attached a short document labeling any other information they gave out about themselves. Then she created a Clone, hidden by mist flames. The clones then transformed into invisible flies. The fly-clones then each attached themselves to one of her classmates, throughout the auditorium.

Gossip and information was the currency of any high school, and that went double for a mafia high school. Her clones would stay with each of the students until Violetta decided otherwise. Since they were Mist and Cloud clones, she didn’t have to worry about them running out of energy or getting hit and dispelled. In Fly mode they also made excellent cameras. Since they were invisible, she’d had them form one huge eye that took up the space a fly’s million eyes usually took. Insect-eye memories gave her headaches.

Eventually one of her classmates, a sun by the feel of her, approached Violetta cautiously. The girl smiled gently. Before she’d even stood up, Violetta had pegged the girl as a healing-type sun. The girl was dark-skinned, had black hair and brown eyes. Despite having average features, she was a very pretty girl.

“Hi! I’m Evalina Guiluliani, from the Becchio Famiglia. Can I ask who you are?” She chattered. Violetta eyed the girl from the corner of her eye, making a show of deciding whether to answer or not. She really wanted to model a milder version of Kyoya Hibari for these people.

“Violetta Allegro. No Famiglia.” She finally admitted.

“Violetta? Her parents don’t have much imagination, do they?” Someone nearby snickered quietly. Not quietly enough that either Violetta or Evalina missed it, however. Evalina’s smile strained slightly.

“They’re civilians. Even if they weren’t, it’s not like I went Active when I was born.” Violetta retorted with a raised eyebrow while she gave a Predator’s stare to a rabbit at the individual in question. The boy sunk down in his seat. Before any other words could be exchanged, the Principal came onto the stage along with a bunch of teachers. The principal approached the lecturn and took a spot behind it. Evalina quickly sat before the Principal could start talking. The man in question waited until the chattering quieted down and everyone sat before he started to speak.

The ‘ceremony’ wasn’t anything unusual. The Principal introduced himself and each of the first year’s homeroom teachers. They were informed that their schedules would be passed out during the remainder of the first period. Then they were given a general ‘welcome’, and each teacher came down off the stage and collected their class. The homeroom teachers led their students to their classrooms.

Violetta followed along just behind the teacher but at the edge of the crowd. As soon as the class entered the room, there was a bit of a hustle to reach the most coveted seats. Naturally Violetta shunshin-ed into the seat she wanted. She took the spot next to the window, opposite the door. The window looked like it could be opened. It seemed that specific seat was a prime spot, because several other students glowered at her for taking it. She could also see them wondering how she’d gotten there first. Let them wonder. She now had an escape if she needed it. One student wasn’t content to wonder. A brawny little fellow first year Violetta knew to be called Andrea approached her.

“See here, no-Famiglia. That seat is mine. I’m with the Vongola Famiglia, and outrank you here. Move.” The boy sneered. Violetta gave the boy and insulting once-over before she turned away from him dismissively, without even replying. The boy growled and reached out to haul Violetta out of her seat. This was Mafia High, so Violetta didn’t hesitate to retaliate before he made contact. She spun sideways in her seat and kicked directly upwards. The boy made a funny little noise which sounded rather like ‘hurk’ and collapsed.

While he moaned on the floor, writhing around dramatically, Violetta calmly turned back around and turned her attention to the teacher. The teacher who was ignoring the entire conflict. Elsewhere in the classroom one of the fights had devolved to knives and garrotes. The teacher likewise ignored that confrontation. At least, Violetta thought the teacher was ignoring it. Once all the seats had been taken and were no longer disputed, the teacher spoke up.

“As the principal told you earlier, I am Mr. Vicenccio. Thus far for today’s fights, we have Mr. Leone versus Miss Allegro, with Miss Allegro winning. Mr. Leone receives a fail while Miss Allegro receives a pass. In the fight with Mr. DeVille, Mr. Martini, Mr. Fontana, and Mr. Conte the only one passing was Mr. Conte. The other three receive fails. From the fight between Ms. Chianu and Ms. Bruno, Ms. Chianu passed, and Ms. Bruno failed. For those unaware, a running tally of passes, fails, and number of fights is kept in the cafeteria and posted at the beginning of each day. You also get a certain amount of extra credit towards your worst grade for each fight you win.” Mr. Vicenccio intoned flatly.

With that over, the teacher called role and had each student come up to grab their schedule in order to be marked ‘here’. They also had to stand in front of a white section of wall and get their photo taken for the year book. Finally, after that, they learned that Mr. Vicenccio taught Algebra.

 _“ **Just** what I wanted first thing in the morning. Not.”_ Violetta thought with a grumble. The rest of the day passed in a similar manner, with small fights breaking out at the beginning of each period for the best seats. In between classes Violetta noted there were people monitoring the hallways visibly. Since they didn’t interfere in any of the fights or hustle people to class, she assumed they were there to record who was involved in fights and whether they passed or failed.

It seemed her Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays were all the ‘regular’ classes. Math, Italian, Foreign Language, and Debate. Her schedule showed that Tuesdays, and Thursdays classes would be Leadership, Combat / Gym / Weapons training, Music, Dancing, and Mafia Etiquette. There were also optional classes on Saturday, which Violetta had already signed up for when she registered. Those classes included chemistry/ poisons class, Healing for Clouds (there was also a healing for Suns class, but she didn’t qualify for that one), sparring for those with prior martial arts experience, and Mafia Liberation every other week. The last class in that list was a class that taught everything from picking pockets to robbing houses and businesses. It also supposedly taught how to smuggle. On the weeks that she didn’t have those classes on Saturday, she had other classes. Her classes on the off weekends were: Introduction to the Mafia and Mafia History, Choir, Band, and Orchestra.

Since she was noted as Pre-Music Track, Violetta would also have two hours of Orchestra before classes every day, two hours of band after classes on Tuesday and Thursday. After School on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday she had an hour of Choir after school. Her ‘Music’ classes would alternate between piano and voice, along with anything else they cared to teach which a music class might teach.

This year Violetta chose to focus on the flute in band and the Violin in Orchestra. Next year she would be allowed to add in another instrument for each, focusing on the new instrument in classes and school practice while she kept up practice with her other instruments at home.

There was a little funkiness in her schedule, however. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, for example, she had Mafia Etiquette classes from three forty until four, which took up half an hour into her band practice time. To make up for this, she had band before the rest of her classes on all Saturdays, taking the spot that belonged to Orchestra during the rest of the regular school week.

All together, Violetta was grateful to have clones. She could send her clones to practice both before and after school, and still join a club or get extra tutoring if she needed too. Plus with magic and Cloud flames she could make it so no one questioned how she was able to do so many things at once. It was still going to be a packed year. Hopefully she’d be able to make friends with some of the upperclassmen in the music track, because it was rare for a student to declare a Pre-track. She would likely be the only first year student with quite that intense a schedule.

* * *

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you've enjoyed this chapter! I have no idea what Italian Highschool schedules are actually like, I just made up something much like my own high school schedule (except trade orchestra & band for Swim Team before and after school, and Swim Team for two or three hours on Saturday). Well, and the types of classes were different, obviously. I did not, for the record, attend a Mafia High School.
> 
> I couldn't resist adding a few pics for clarification. Yes, all the flats I looked up are real, and are in Rome. The layout of Violetta's Flat is different from the real one. For one thing, the real one has no kitchen and only one bedroom. Also no porch, even though others in the building do...which is strange. So I gave her apartment the porch and made it a bit bigger so she could share with her parents. Plus, you know, cook and stuff.
> 
> \- The line about celebrities versus Royalty was something noted by another author in their author’s notes, though I can’t remember whose notes. The idea stuck with me, apparently, and popped up in this story. That author had a very good point.  
> \- The name “Donna” means Lady, in case that was unclear
> 
> I hope to write at least another chapter of this story right away. Hopefully tomorrow, but we'll see.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!
> 
> ~Wingzrooke


	6. Mafia High AU: Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the continuation of the Mafia High AU story.

* * *

* * *

The remainder of classes before lunch followed the typical first-day sort of schedule. Each of Violetta’s teachers introduced themselves, called role, handed out a general syllabus, and went over class requirements and rules. Fairly standard, if boring, stuff. Then lunch time rolled around and it was an entirely different story. Lunch time was for eating, of course, but also for forming (or breaking) alliances and sharing information. In other words: gossiping. It was for this purpose that Violetta deigned to join the rest of her Italian class in heading to the cafeteria. It turned out that the years had their own sections of the cafeteria. Sometimes people would go between the different sections, but mostly they kept to themselves. Violetta’s group wedged themselves right in the center of the first years’ table, where gossip was the hottest.

If she’d been a normal Cloud, like she was portraying, this would have bothered her. So Violetta made sure to look like she was there under protest. What she learned, however, was well worth it. A couple of second years came over to Violetta’s group, looking curious.

“We heard there’s a Sky among the first years this year. Know who it is?” The second years ring-leader asked his little sister. Violetta frowned internally. Loopholes were the worst. So they couldn’t say what flame type a student was, but the staff _could_ say there was a Sky among the year. The little sister in question, Evalina Guiluliani, shook her head.

“Not so far.” Violetta’s classmate denied.

“Pity. We wanted to be there when _that group_ hazed the newest Sky.” Evalina’s older brother grumbled.

“Hazed?” Another first-year student asked in alarm. “Who would haze a _Sky?!_ ” he yelped. The male Guiluliani shrugged.

“They’re mostly second years and one third year, the strongest of their flame types. The oldest, the third year, is Lal Mirch, and the second year Colonello no last name both of whom tie for strongest Rain in the school. There’s Renato Sinclair, the strongest Sun flame here. Next you have Viper, again no last name and no known gender. They wear the uniform with pants, but they wear a cloak over it and a Mist illusion so no one is sure what their gender is. They’re the strongest Mist in the school. Of course there’s also Verde. They say he’s the strongest Lightning here, but he never uses his flames except in his inventions so we’re not really sure. The last member of the group is the foreign student, Fon Miyazaki, the strongest Storm in the school. They all hang out together. They’re weirdly popular, except for their hazing of Sky students.” Another of the second years, a girl, informed the first years.

“They say they haze the Skies because they don’t want a Sky of their own, but the Skies in this school keep trying to force them to bond anyways.” The third and last member of the little group of second years shared.

“Who doesn’t want a Sky?” Evalina wondered, making a face at the very thought. The three second years all sort of shrugged. Meanwhile, Violetta’s mind was spinning. It shouldn’t have surprised her that the Arcobaleno, or well … the people who could become Arcobaleno since they had yet to be cursed, went to mafia school. Plus she’d known, somewhere in the back of her mind, that Timoteo Vongola and Reborn were friends. She just hadn’t connected the dots between them being friends and them being of a similar age. Probably the same age, in fact, since Reborn was a second year like Timoteo Vongola.

The only ones she wouldn't have expected were Fon and Skull, of course. It could have been because she was in a different reality than the ones before, but she’d never heard that they’d all gone to school together. She wasn't shocked Skull wasn't at Mafia High, because Skull was still a civilian when he’d joined the Arcobaleno. 

Nothing much more exciting happened or was talked about during lunch after the big reveal about 'that group'. Violetta did send out more clone-flies to attach to the rest of the student body, though. Otherwise she sat silently and ate her food.

* * *

Time Skip: six months later. January 19XX

School continued on at a rapid pace, her days busy from sunup to sundown. Every day she was grateful for her ability to make clones. Her clones took her extra classes before and after school, the Mist transfer helping her to build muscles and muscle memory off the clones. The clones also made breakfast and dinner for her. Lunch was eaten at the school’s posh cafeteria every day except Sunday. Every so often she would get Cloud-restless, and she’d send a clone to school for her as well so that she could take her motorcycle out into the countryside for long drives. That usually took the edge off.

While she and the learning clones took care of those matters, her Fly-clones recorded everything that happened around each of the school’s students and teachers (she’d finally managed to find the teacher’s lounge and plant her little Fly-spies on them around October). They captured everything that went on in a day and then funneled those memories to small Mist orbs back at her flat. There a couple of clones reviewed everything and kept a little Mist-book of information she should know about each person, especially blackmail worthy material.

Unfortunately Violetta forgot to protect her own information against being discovered, other than dressing like a Cloud. Which was why she was ambushed after school on a Saturday afternoon. Ironically right after Mafia Liberation class, where they were studying methods of escape from imprisonment and ambushes. To be honest, she was somewhat surprised it had taken the Pre-Arcobaleno this long to track her down. They must have gotten impatient and broken into the student files.

Because so far no one else had even suspected Violetta of being a Sky. It helped that she definitely displayed the temper of a Cloud. She currently stood at the top of the leader board for both number of fights and number of fights won. Her winning streak was also unbroken.

“Your file says you’re a Sky.” Colonello, charmingly blunt in every world she’d lived in, stated outright.

“Does it?” Violetta returned easily.

“It does.” Viper confirmed. There was a long, semi-awkward pause where the group waited for Violetta to respond, and she very decidedly _did not._

“Why are you dressing in the Cloud uniform?” Colonello demanded forthrightly. Slowly one of Violetta’s eyebrows rose partway.

“Because I’m a Cloud.” She answered dryly. The others surrounding her gave her disbelieving looks.

“Prove it.” Lal Mirch dared, and Violetta gave the third year woman a dead-eyed look.

“Why should I? I actually am a Cloud, but even if I was only a Sky pretending to be a Cloud, I still wouldn’t admit it to you lot. Everyone knows you hate Skies and have it in for them. So much so that the first years were all warned on their very first day.” Violetta drawled.

“What?!” Colonello yelped while Renato (Reborn) snarled:

“Who told you that lie?!” The others didn’t comment, but looked very upset at her words.

“A lot of people say it. It didn’t come from just one source. Are you saying you _don’t_ hate Skies or do cruel things to them?” Violetta huffed. She’d seen some of the things they did to Skies, after all.

“We don’t hate Skies. We’re actually all seeking a Sky. It’s just that none of the Skies we’ve met so far have been strong enough to hold us. So we started testing potential Skies before we let them try to pull us in. A failed attempt to bond _hurts_ , after all. If a Sky can’t pass the basic tests, we don’t bother letting them try to bond with us. Not willingly, anyways, and we’re allowed to defend ourselves against forced bonding.” Fon sighed. Violetta studied each of the men thoughtfully, tilting her head to the side.

“Interesting.” She replied at length.

“Now show us your Cloud flame and prove you’re mislabeled as a Sky or else show us your Sky flame!” Colonello demanded. Violetta barely refrained from rolling her eyes.

“No.”

“What?!” Colonello cried.

“Why not?” Verde asked far more sensibly.

“Because I don’t have to. I don’t know you, I owe you nothing, and you ambushed me.” She retorted immediately, giving them all her best ‘irritated Cloud’ look. Fon and Renato at least had the grace to wince.

“Is there something we could do to convince you to show us your flames?” Renato hummed thoughtfully. Violetta considered him, then swept her gaze over the group and back to Renato.

“I suppose, if I got to know you and found you worthy of my attention, I might show you. A hint for the future: I’m definitely a Cloud. If I were a Sky trying to hide, however, I would want reassurances that my Flame-type would not be shared with others. Also, you would need to properly court me if you desire to see my flames. I _am_ a Cloud.” She elucidated. She kept repeating the fact that she was a Cloud, and tried to choose her words to imply that she was a Cloud _instead_ of a Sky, rather than saying she was a Cloud _as well as_ a Sky. Several of their eyebrows raised in response to her words at first, but most of them also looked thoughtful.

“Agreed. Will you join us outside for lunch, then? So we might better get to know you and also prove ourselves worthy of your intentions?” Renato quickly snapped out, as though he feared she would take back her words and implied offer.

“What’s in it for me?” She immediately demanded. Clouds, after all, very rarely did something for someone not _theirs_ simply because the person said ‘please’. The group exchanged looks, as though they were all trying to come up with something she might like. Since the Ex-Arcobaleno of other worlds had made excellent guardians, Violetta decided to give them a (very small) break. Plus, they’d thought to invite her outside for lunch, in deference to her stated status as a Cloud.

“I suppose you may provide lunch for me. I’ve been craving five specific meals. That gives you five days, to start. _If_ you can provide the meals in question.” It was a hard request, because none of the group before her, with maybe the exception of Fon, came from a Famiglia. At least Colonello and Viper had no family either, being orphans or runaways. The entire group also lived in the dormitory, so their means were unknown. But her intuition was rarely wrong, so she let the offer dangle.

“Name your requests.” Renato, ever the one to raise to challenges (or create them), immediately ordered.

“Strangozzi with black truffle, tonnarelli with urchin eggs, linguine with lobster, Fettucine with Ovoli Mushrooms Parmesan cheese and white truffle, and lastly Tagliolini with Porcini Mushrooms. I leave the drink choice up to you, but it should pair with the meal well and be non-alcoholic.” The pricey meals raised a few eyebrows, but Reborn nodded while looking determined.

“We’ll have them ready. Monday, twelve ten at the cafeteria. We’ll wait for you there and then you can pick a spot outside for us to sit.” Reborn agreed.

“Monday.” She agreed, and then she jumped into the air, over their heads and landed lightly on the ground on the other side before performing a shunshin. So fast did she move from the time she crouched to the time she landed that the group barely saw a blur of her. She disappeared altogether when she performed the shunshin.

“That was…interesting.” Verde finally ventured into the quiet. No one else could disagree. Interesting was certainly the word for the previous events and challenge.

* * *

The following Monday Violetta could hardly sit still through her classes. Her classmates, having learned the hard way about irritating clouds, edged themselves (and in some cases their desks) away from Violetta. None of them wanted to be too close to a Cloud that looked like they were about to go off at any minute. Silently she scoffed at them. Couldn’t they tell the difference between excitement and irritation? Apparently not.

When the lunch bell _finally_ rang, Violetta shunshin-ed directly from her seat to just outside the cafeteria doors, beating almost everyone there. Keyword in that being ‘almost’. The Pre-Arcobalenos must have left their classes early, because they were already waiting. All of them except for Verde, that is.

“Good afternoon, Miss Allegro.” Reborn half-purred at her.

“Hello.” She replied shortly. Not a one of them looked put-out by the brevity of her response, though. Each of them was dressed even more nicely than usual, excepting Sinclair who was a known clothes horse. Naturally, Violetta was dressed the same as ever. Except she’d braided her hair instead of letting it hang down her back loosely.

“Shall we adjourn to the garden?” Fon offered, while Renato offered her his arm. Violetta accepted Renato’s arm, threading hers so her hand rested gently on his. Lal Mirch came to Violetta’s other side and the rest followed behind them. Fon got the door to the outside as they approached it. As they approached the cold outdoors, Sinclair began to radiate heat from his flames to keep her warm. Of course she could have kept warm with her own flames, but it was a nice touch.

Outside the doors, she saw a shoveled walkway which led to a rather large gazebo. There was no snow inside the gazebo, and when she stepped inside she felt warmth immediately surround her. She looked around and noted both Verde and what looked like a small, portable heater. She also noted, now that she was inside, there were small devices of some kind on each of the pillars of the gazebo which were maintaining a barrier with Viper’s Mist flames which kept the heat in.

The lunch she’d requested was set out on the table in the center of the gazebo, the strangozzi pasta with black truffle which she’d requested laid out at each of the place settings. On the table was a clear pitcher of what looked like steaming hot cocoa with marshmallows melting at the top. There was also a pitcher of some sort of coffee, as well as one that she suspected was espresso. There was a pitcher of water, and also one that looked like it might be sparkling water. The drinks even included a pot of tea, although she could not see what kind of tea it was.

At the end of the table was a chair, since there was no bench there. The thoughtfulness of providing for her professed (and real) Cloud status touched Violetta. True they were probably only doing it because she was listed as a Sky and the school took listing the correct flame seriously, but it was still very thoughtful. Especially since they probably thought it was just her cover. That they would help her maintain that cover, even while trying to see through it, was sweet. Silently she swept around the table and took the chair. This time Fon sat on her left and Lal Mirch settled in on Violetta’s right side. Renato settled down next to Fon. She sensed that he would have liked to pout at not sitting next to her, but felt like he needed to act professionally to best represent himself.

The others began small talk amongst themselves, drawing Violetta in where they could. She sampled the pasta first, and found it to be perfectly prepared. She’d had very few opportunities to taste pasta like this since she stopped accompanying her parents on their tours. Honestly, she’d missed it. The food, that is. Her parents too, of course, and seeing different cities, but touring was boring when one was a child and couldn’t go out and about on their own. The others watched her first bite, waiting to see her reaction. She nodded once, simply. Colonello beamed at her, Reborn looked smug, and Fon quietly satisfied. Lal Mirch looked happy enough with Violetta’s response, but Violetta couldn’t help but feel Verde was being left out.

“Your name is Verde, right?” she addressed the scientist, who immediately turned from his notebook to face her.

“That is correct.”

“I’ve heard you’re an inventor. Are the devices powering the Mist shielding yours? They are quite impressive.”

“Thank you, Miss Allegro. They are indeed mine. Do you invent?” Verde responded, as he pushed his glasses back up his nose.

“I don’t. I’m an ideas type of person, not a building ideas type of person. I can tinker a bit, but nothing so clever as what I’ve heard you make.” She demurred. The lightning blushed. His obvious happiness at the compliment, despite how many he must get, gave Violetta a little happy glow inside. Usually by the time he met her, Verde was inured to compliments at his work. Apparently teenage Verde was not so world weary.

“Can I ask what your interests are, since they don’t include inventing?” Reborn redirected smoothly. Violetta gave him a look saying he wasn’t being very subtle, but let it go. They had to find out somehow.

“Oh, this and that. I particularly enjoy music. My family are all musicians, you see.” She hummed.

“Any relation to Francesco and Carlotta Allegro?” Viper asked, head cocked to the side slightly.

“Mhmm. My parents.” Violetta agreed. In between her comments, she made sure to take bites of pasta. She didn’t want the food to go to waste and they only had twenty minutes to eat. Viper sat back, startled.

“Your parents? I wasn’t aware the Allegros were Mafia…” Viper mused, a small black book appearing in their hands and about to write something in it.

“They aren’t.” Violetta corrected shortly. She’d gotten some flack from other children for being a civilian’s kid, and she hoped these six weren’t about to repeat the experience for her. Viper’s book vanished, but thankfully no one commented.

“Will you be taking the music track, then?” Lal Mirch asked, steering the conversation away from potentially problematic waters.

“Yes, I’m Pre-Music track, so I already have the band, orchestra, choir, and music courses.”

“That must make for a very busy schedule.” Fon noted.

“Yes.” The remainder of lunch continued in that vein, and then they escorted her back to the school.

Tuesday’s lunch was much the same as the first, only the dish of the day was different. Wednesday, however, brought a bit of a change. They were mid-lunch when a girl Violetta didn’t recognize on sight approached the gazebo. The girl entered without so much as a by your leave. The corner’s of Violetta’s mouth turned down as the girl walked right up to Renato. Her expression turned into an outright frown as Renato rejected the girl’s request to consider her for his Sky. She frowned because the girl didn’t leave after being rejected.

Renato had already turned back to his lunch and the current conversation when the girl stepped forward and stretched out her hand towards him. Though it was weak and faint, Violetta could feel the gathering Sky flames on the end of the girl’s hand. There was no way this girl could hold Renato, or any of the Pre-Arcobaleno, in her Sky. She just wasn’t strong enough. Aside from that, however, consent is important.

Before she really realized what she was doing, Violetta had her knife and fork in hand. She’d stood and rounded both Reborn and the table so fast no one saw her do it, despite having looked to her when she started to stand. Coldly she stabbed her fork down, into the girl’s hand, and the knife stabbed into the girl’s side.

“Consent is important, idiot. He said _no_. That isn’t code for ‘try anyways’.” She snarled coldly while stabbing. The girl, who looked to be a third year, screamed loudly. None of the little teenage Pre-Arcobaleno reacted to the screaming, but they did stare at Violetta in surprise.

“Oh, do shut up. You’re really irritating me.” Violetta barked at the girl, then gave the girl a gentle shove. Once started, the girl immediately turned and ran back towards the school building. Shrieking all the while. Now that the threat was gone, Violetta retook her seat.

“Thank you. Though I could have handled that myself.” Reborn murmured, looking amused now that he’d gotten over his shock.

“You could have, but you didn’t see her. And failed bonds hurt. Plus, people who ignore someone’s right to choose make me angry.” She scowled. The others allowed Violetta some space and quiet to cool off, and eventually the group went back to conversing. It wasn’t as good an end to the second lunch date, but it was okay once she cooled off.

* * *

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have no idea if the dishes chosen are actually expensive, I just did a google search for expensive Italian dishes, and they were on a list of expensive dishes, so I'm going to assume they are. If they aren't, do me a favor and pretend, okay? Thanks. 
> 
> I was going to write this tomorrow (well, technically later today, since it's now 5:43 AM), but I couldn't sleep. So here, have an update earlier. Sorry for the monster paragraphs in parts. I'm way to tired to go back through and try to fix things. But I wanted to post this before I went to sleep so I wouldn't forget.
> 
> Also, if leaving a comment because you'd like to see one of these story ideas continued, please add the name of the story in the comment, because the notification doesn't tell me which one you're leaving the comment on, since I'm posting them all together like this. I'd like to know which of these are the most popular. Thanks! After November I think I'll definitely go back to posting these ideas separately.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed this chapter!
> 
> ~ Wingzrooke


	7. Mafia High AU: Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fixed name error! 11/19/20 - not an update!
> 
> Further continuation of Mafia High AU

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the first couple parts of this were supposed to be attached to last chapter...oops! Well, they're not part of today's update. Sorry. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

* * *

* * *

Did she say it was okay? Because she might have lied. By the next day _everyone_ knew about Violetta stabbing the female Sky in two places. Of course the Sun in the infirmary was able to patch her up in a jiffy, but it was still a serious offense to stab a Sky. During homeroom Violetta was pulled into the Principal’s office.

Thankfully all she had to do was explain the circumstances, and the girl’s attempt to forcefully bond Violetta’s friend. Violetta also added that the girl had interrupted the other teenager’s courting date with Violetta, a rival Sky. The issue was let go immediately. Thankfully the Mist flames on her outfit meant any staff member who knew about her Sky flames couldn’t see her Cloud-flame accents. So she escaped without even a question on her Cloud-themed clothes.

The whole ordeal, however, made Violetta realize she was already starting to feel a little protective over the Pre-Arcobaleno. Two days was pretty fast, even for her general record. Granted she’d had instantaneous bonds before, but this was different. Perhaps it was because she was predisposed to like them, since she was very fond of all her previous Ex-Arcobaleno Guardians and these Pre-Arcobalenos were very similar. Perhaps it was all the little ways they were taking care to cater to her preferences and needs as a stated Cloud. Maybe it was the surprising magnetism of each of the members. Whatever it was, it had clearly started to work on her.

It was time to do something new, she thought. Not to trip them up, but simply to test them the tiniest bit. She wasn’t sure, at first, what ‘doing something new’ would entail. Then she sat through the remainder of first period and realized exactly what it was.

At lunch that day, Violetta met the group outside. The others were already present when Violetta stormed up to the table. Startled, and feeling the tension in the air of an angry Cloud, they all turned to face her.

“Sinclair.” She barked.

“Yes…?” He responded warily.

“You’re supposed to be some sort of math genius, from what they say. Please explain this to me.” She demanded as she dropped her math text book on the table next to his setting. Renato, looking semi-amused, flipped the book open to her bookmark. Inside the opened pages was a sheet of paper, which clearly showed via the multitude of eraser marks the problem she’d gotten stuck on.

“Why didn’t you ask the teacher for help?” Colonello wondered. Violetta grumbled something under her breath for five minutes, then sighed and answered louder.

“I was called to the office this morning while Mr. Vicenccio explained. Apparently he refuses to explain a second time to anyone, especially if they miss things due to ‘shenanigans’ or fighting. I read the chapter and managed to get through the previous problems, but I got stuck on this one. What did I do wrong?” She explained through gritted teeth. The teacher’s attitude that morning really rubbed her the wrong way. Looking more irritated and less amused than before, Renato explained the chapter’s concept and then went over the problem with her. The others talked among themselves. They finished the worksheet with five minutes to spare before lunch ended.

“So, I’ve been wondering….why were you called to the office?” Colonello pried now that it was ‘safe’ to do so. Having Renato’s help made the whole thing go much smoother, and as a result Violetta was in a much better mood. She rolled her eyes at his question, though.

“That bratty, entitled girl from yesterday had to report who stabbed her and why. Apparently she lied about the reason, though. Even if she hadn’t, they said they still would have needed to check. The girl _is_ a Sky, even if only barely. They can’t just let people go around stabbing Skies, it’s bad for their image.” She grumbled.

“Only barely a Sky?” Viper pried, little black notebook making an appearance once more as it did anytime Viper heard something interesting. Violetta shrugged.

“Sure, couldn’t you feel it? She had hardly any flame, and what she did have was _very_ weak. She’ll be lucky if she can hold a single, weak guardian in her Sky. Forget about any mid-range elements, or top-tier elements like us.” Violetta narrated.

“Interesting. I’ve never encountered or heard of anyone that can sense a person’s level of flame power. One can usually guestimate by color and amount of flames shown, but it is more of an art than a science.” Verde commented to general agreement of the others. Violetta shrugged.

“Huh, strange. I’ve just been able to do it since I went Active.”

* * *

With the stabbing of ‘that girl’, people became more aware of Violetta. Specifically, they became aware that she was eating with ‘that group’. The group of Pre-Arcobaleno were, as one second year told her back at the beginning of the school year, strangely popular. So it wasn’t all that surprising that people realized she was spending time with them during lunch by the fourth day. It did mean, however, that she drew a lot more attention.

Evalina, ever their class’s diplomat and Miss Congeniality, was the one ‘elected’ to approach Violetta. She was also the only one who hadn’t spurred one of Violetta’s ‘Cloud reactions’. There was just something sweet about her, and she was careful not to offend anyone if she could help it.

“Hi Violetta! Hey, I’m sorry to seem nosy, but my big Brother wanted to know why ‘that group’ is letting you hang out with them, and he promised me a huge favor if I found out. Would you help me out so I can get that favor?” Evalina chattered cheerfully as she took a seat near Violetta, who still reigned supreme in the war of the seats and sat in the seat by the window. Violetta shrugged.

“Isn’t it obvious? They didn’t have a Cloud strong enough to match the rest of them before. I’m the Strongest Cloud in our school, so they’re trying to get me to join their group.” Violetta told Evalina, outwardly serious and blasé but internally snickering. That aught to throw others off the scent. Evalina, sweet summer child and also dedicated gossip mill queen, passed some more of said gossip to Violetta while they waited for class to start. Naturally Violetta’s statement was all over the school by the end of second period.

She knew it was because a giant, hulking brute of a man with purple accents like Violetta’s own, stormed up to her in the hallway between second and third period.

“’m Diego. Third year. Heard you claim to be the Strongest Cloud in the school. That’s my title. You want it, shrimp, you’ve got to earn it.” The man growled at her. Violetta didn’t even have time to blink between the end of his sentence and the man launching himself at her.

The man’s speed was multiplied, Cloud flames on full display. Violetta, however, had lived multiple lifetimes as a Ninja. She blurred out of the way, spinning around him until she could lash out at him with a chakra and cloud-enhanced kick to the back of the knees. He managed to twist as he fell, kicking out at her, but Violetta caught his foot in one hand and _squeezed_ on his ankle. She heard the ‘pop’ of his ankle dislocating, and the boy yelled out in pain. She didn’t stop there, though, and neither did the man. She dropped his leg and jumped backwards just as Diego flipped to his feet.

He must have multiplied his pain tolerance, because he didn’t even flinch as he set his full weight on his dislocated ankle. The other students cleared a space around the two combatants, forming a ring. Time to be a little showy, she thought. She allowed her cloud flames to manifest in her eyes, to flow form her and drip from the ends of her hair. She sent some of her invisible Cloud flames to increase the slipperiness of the hallway linoleum, and to multiply the wear of the pattern on the bottom of Diego’s shoe which provided traction.

Diego lowered into another lunging stance and made to lunge forward, but his shoes slipped on the floor and he ended up on his face. Violetta wasted no time. She jumped forward and landed on Diego’s back. She heard a ‘pop’ of his back cracking, though not breaking thankfully, she didn’t want to paralyze the man after all.

With a grunt, Diego managed to fling her off of himself before she could really make her position solid. While flying through the air, Violetta twisted so she landed like a fly on the wall. She clung there for a moment, raising more than a few eyebrows, before she blasted off straight at Diego. She left a crater behind and was going so fast she hit Diego with an outstretched fist before he could register it. She then hit him with a flurry of Cloud-encased fists, the last of which flung him to the opposite side of the hallway, through the wall, through the classroom behind the wall, and out the window. She waited a moment to see if the third year would return, it was possible since it was only the second story. That sort of a jump was nothing to a Cloud. One of the two nearby hall monitors walked through the hole in the wall to go look out the window.

“Winner: Miss Allegro. Miss Allegro now holds the title of Strongest Cloud.” The hall monitor announced. In reply Violetta nodded once, as though the title was nothing less than her due. Silently she cheered. There were certain responsibilities of a student holding the title of Strongest for a certain element. The main part of those duties was to defend the title. She would have to accept the challenge of every Cloud that wanted to take the title from her, and she would have to track down and fight every Cloud that claimed to be the strongest. Presumably to either put them in their place or prove them right. On the upside, Clouds tended to follow those who established themselves as stronger than that individual cloud.

It was very likely Diego would shortly become her minion. Either that or he would keep challenging her every day. It could go either way with a Cloud, really.

* * *

The day after Thursday and Violetta’s borrowing of Renato’s brain, marked a change in how the Pre-Arcobaleno operated. It started with Math, where Renato ‘just happened’ to be assisting Mr. Vicenccio that day. She gave him a bit of a hairy eye when he entered behind the teacher, but he didn’t unnecessarily single her out. In fact Sinclair helped everyone in the room who needed it. He also did a better job than the actual teacher. No wonder so many alternate versions of Renato became tutors. He was really good at it. Even if he usually chose methods that might be considered somewhat…traumatizing. Thankfully this time there was no dynamite, wild animals, or blood-thirsty mafia members. Unless you counted the students, of course.

In her next class, Verde was the one who ‘happened’ to be working as a teaching assistant that day. It wasn’t exactly his area of specialty, but Verde was a genius and remembered all the rules of their language perfectly. If Sinclair helped with math class, and Verde with Italian, she wondered what the others would join. Because once was maybe coincidence. After all, Sinclair _could_ have chosen to assist the math teacher to see if Mr. Vicenccio really did refuse to help students. Twice, however, was as they say ‘enemy action’, or in this case ‘friendly action’. 

Verde did his best to help everyone in the class, though it was clear teaching was not his calling. In any way shape or form. He helped students figure things out. But he insulted their intelligence and grumbled somewhat while doing so. It also took him a while to figure out how to explain things so other (non-genius) students could understand. Still, she gave him credit for even going along with this plan when it was clear it didn’t suit him or his strengths. And there weren’t honestly that many students who struggled. It was their native language and their final public mandated school, after all.

For Lunch, Verde escorted Violetta out to the gazebo. The others were all assembled there, as was the final dish she’d requested: Tagliolini pasta with porcini mushrooms. She quickly ate her lunch, and then turned her attention to getting information out of her new friends.

“So, is this going to be a _thing_? You lot showing up in all my classes? Don’t you have to go to your own classes?” Violetta wondered aloud. Renato, naturally, smirked at her.

“Who knows? Maybe.” He answered.

“Well, you have to admit, we’re at a disadvantage compared to your classmates. Only seeing you for twenty minutes a day really isn’t enough time to become good friends.” Verde pointed out logically.

“Some of us haven’t even _been_ in a class with you.” Colonello grumbled. Violetta hid a smile behind her cup of tea. It was a good Asian blend. Obviously provided by Fon, who was also drinking it.

“We are above the level of what they teach here. Missing one class will hardly harm our grades.” Verde added calmly, still working in a notebook as he usually did.

“You know, I can hardly to see which of you joins my music classes.” She laughed a little. Of course she didn’t actually expect any of them to join the music classes. No one had come to orchestra, after all. To her surprise, and she should really stop being surprised by this lot rising to any challenge she set them, most of the group looked thoughtful at her suggestion.

“I bet I would play a mean trumpet.” Colonello mused thoughtfully. She blinked, tilted her head, and yeah, she could see it.

“What instruments do you play, Tesoro?” Renato inquired while spearing a mushroom on the end of his fork.

“Lots. Eventually I intend to learn to play them _all_. I’m in band, orchestra, choir, and general music right now if that’s what you’re asking.” She laughed. Sinclair pouted a little.

“We really are interested. What instruments do you play, Violetta?” Lal Mirch pressed a tiny bit. Violetta favored the woman with a smile.

“Well, I already play the Piano, flute, viola, violin, the guitar, the mandolin, the banjo, the erhu, and the koto. I’ve played a little bit with drums and the Guqin, also. Mostly stringed instruments. I hope to increase the number of band instruments I play first.” She admitted, blushing a bit under their incredulous looks.

“That is a lot of instruments. I don’t recognize some of them, where are they from?” Viper commented lightly, little black book back out.

“Oh, they’re Asian instruments, most likely. I assume you didn’t recognize the erhu, koto, or Guqin?”

“Yes.”

“The Koto and Guqin are both zithers, the Koto from Japan originally and the Guqin originally from China. The Erhu is a stringed instrument also, but it looks like a long-handled mallet or a tiny drum on the end of a long stick with pegs more than anything else. It’s sound is quite beautiful, though.” She explained briefly.

“So, who can I expect in what classes? Will any of you be doing more than one class?” She wondered. Despite her teasing attempts to find out this information, the others all played secretive and coy, refusing to answer. At the end of lunch, she was forced to give up her information hunting.

Foreign Language, where they were studying French, Fon showed up at the beginning of class. She was a bit surprised Fon chose this class, since she would have expected Renato, who was half French. Fon, who was Asian, was not her first guess for helping to teach French. Which just goes to show she shouldn’t have judged a book by its origins, because Fon spoke French with a perfect Paris accent. Fon also seemed to be a natural at teaching, both patient and kind. He looked a little surprised that Violetta spoke perfect French, excepting for her pesky accent which was about one-third actual French accent and two-thirds Japanese. To her it made sense, since she’d learned French while she was Tsunako. To Fon, it was a bit of a strange incongruity. He didn’t try to pry, though. For which Violetta was thankful.

She’d been half wondering all day who would show up for Debate class. Really any of the Pre-Arcobaleno could have done well with that class. When she thought about it later, though, it was no surprise that Viper had chosen to help the class that was all about information and arguing to get what you want. They were an information specialist and loved to bargain prices, after all.

When debate class was over, Viper escorted Violetta from the room. The others were waiting for them just outside the classroom door, and they all walked with Violetta to choir. Where, to her surprise, they joined her. They didn’t join as teacher’s assistants, though. No, apparently sometime between lunch and now every single one of the six Pre-Arcobaleno had signed up to take first year Choir.

The teacher tested each of their ranges, and found Renato could comfortably sing anything from counter tenor to baritone. Lal Mirch was firmly an Alto, Colonello was a tenor through and through, Viper surprisingly sang base, and Verde could do tenor or baritone. Fon, though, was the greatest surprise of all. Somehow, and she suspected Mist flames despite him having none, Fon could sing all four: countertenor, tenor, baritone, and base. It was heard of, but very rare and usually unstable. A countertenor alone was extremely rare as it was. But to have all four…she’d heard of but never met anyone who could.

To be fair, Violetta herself could sing any range she put her mind to. But she could also cheat with Mist and Cloud flames. She also had the Black family magical gift for singing and music. She could naturally sing any of the female parts, being the most gifted of the Blacks in music, and with flames could sing any of the male parts as well.

Unfortunately Violetta was the only one of their group currently singing Soprano, and had several solos as well, so she wasn’t close to anyone except Lal. The songs they were currently practicing were [“Time to say Goodbye”,](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSh9oUGI9L8) the Hymn to Mameli and the Hymn to Joy in Italian (naturally). Time to Say Goodbye was one of Violetta’s favorites. She was excited to perform it at the end of the spring performance. To sing it with the others of her group was exciting. All of her guardians eventually ended up able to sing, and most even picked up an instrument. She truly enjoyed music, right down to her soul. To get to share it with her special people…there was nothing else like it.

After choir, Violetta held back. The rest of her group held back as well while the other students streamed out around them. Finally it was only the Pre-Arcobaleno, Violetta, and the teacher present. The teacher ushered them from the room and the group gathered around Violetta outside the building.

“I was wondering….most of you live in the dorms, right? So what do you do for dinner?” Violetta began casually.

“We normally eat in the cafeteria. They have dinner and breakfast for those who live in the dorms.” Colonello was the first to answer.

“Must get boring.” Violetta commented blankly. “Want to go get dinner with me?” She offered. The others brightened at her suggestion.

“What did you have in mind?” Sinclair wondered.

“I’ve been craving Ramen for some time, and I finally found a little shop that does the dish justice. They have other things, of course. Everything from Asian cooked duck to curry and beyond. They make some good hotpot meals, too.” Violetta suggested.

“I would be honored to accompany you.” Fon immediately agreed, a shine in his eyes. “Do you eat Asian cuisine often?” He asked, and Violetta smiled at him.

“Sometimes.” She agreed. “I happen to be something of a Ramen fiend, though.” She admitted without so much as a blush.

“We will all go.” Renato declared without waiting for the others to make up their minds.

“Do you have transportation? The shop’s about five minutes away by vehicle.” Her question caused most of the others to shake their heads, but Verde piped up.

“I have a self-driving car that I invented. We can go in that.” He declared. Violetta sighed in relief. She really didn’t plan ahead with her offer. It was good that one of them had some form of transportation.

“Alright. Meet me in the parking lot in a minute? I want to grab my bike so I don’t have to come all the way back here before heading home after we’re done hanging out.” Violetta directed.

“I’ll go with you, I have my money on me already.” Viper declared, and most of the others agreed. Verde pouted a little, but was still the only one who separated to fetch something. It made Violetta wonder why the others had their money on them. Did others in the dorm steal? She set that thought aside for later. She could test their defenses later. Tomorrow, perhaps.

The group, minus Verde, trailed after Violetta to her spot near the front. The looks of confusion on their face made her feel a little gleeful as they looked around for her ‘bike’. With a bit of an impish grin, which the others didn’t see since she was in front, Violetta stepped through her Mist and magic barrier. The others, loosing sight of her and not realizing why (except perhaps Viper), started to look a little panicked. She grabbed her bike and wheeled it out from the barrier. The others, minus Viper, didn’t register her until both she and the bike were fully outside the barrier. The present Pre-Arcobaleno calmed as soon as they registered her.

“You have a Mist barrier around your parking spot?” Viper questioned once everyone was there, Verde having driven up behind the group while Violetta was wrangling her motorcycle. When he said he ‘had a car’, she hadn’t expected a limo. In hindsight she probably should have.

“Yeah. I detest having to fight with the sheeple for a parking spot. I reserve all my parking spots in advance when possible. I’ve got one right outside the shop we’re going to, as well.” She admitted with a sharp grin that was all Cloud. Lal Mirch whistled lowly.

“Nice.” She said at the same time as Colonello stated:

“It seems a bit like cheating.”

“It’s only cheating if someone else does it.” Violetta immediately retorted. Then she flared her Cloud flames around the bike and shrunk it to fit in her pocket. To her surprise, the rest of her group seemed devastated by her causal use of Cloud flames. It took her a moment to realize why they were so devastated: they were still under the impression that she had either Cloud flames _or_ Sky flames, and had been courting her on the assumption she had Sky flames.

She idly toyed with the idea of letting them continue to think she was just a Cloud…but it didn’t stay in her mind for more than a millisecond before she quashed it. She _did_ want them to be her guardians now that she knew them better. Also, she enjoyed them spoiling her and going out of their way to spend time with her.

“Verde, your car is soundproofed, yes?” Violetta murmured softly to him. The dejected lightning nodded absently. “Let’s get inside the car and talk before you all start looking like someone killed your favored younger sibling, alright?” She requested, raising her voice slightly. The others all shuffled into the car, with Violetta following behind. Inside the limo, they sat on two long benches. Violetta sat on the bench just behind the drivers’ seat, facing the back of the car. The other two benches ran along the inside of the car and faced each other. The car started moving again while Violetta ran her eyes over the others.

“Viper, can you make a Mist contract? What I want to tell you is a secret, and it could endanger me should it get out.” Violetta requested.

“I can…” Viper hummed.

“Why should we sign it? What’s in it for us?” Verde grumbled. Violetta withheld the sigh she wanted to let out. They really were taking the reveal of her Cloud flames hard.

“How about Viper makes and signs the contract, and I’ll tell them behind a Mist barrier. Then, if they think it’s something you’ll want to know, they can tell you if it would be worth it to you to sign.” Violetta suggested.

No one protested this plan, and Viper wanted all the information they could get, even if they couldn’t use it. Also, although it was a little known fact it was very true that Viper liked secrets just as much as they liked money. They just weren’t as obvious about it. Secrets were no longer secret once shared, after all. In mere moments the contract was created, signed, and Viper’s Mist barrier up.

“There is a fallacy in you lot’s way of thinking. I am a Cloud, it’s true. I am _also_ a Sky and a Mist.” She informed her friend, allowing three licks of the different colored flames to manifest in her palm. Her fellow Mist’s gaze was riveted on Violetta’s palm.

“I can feel it. Sky Attraction. No one has ever been able to pull on me with Sky Attraction before. Not successfully, anyways.” Viper murmured in awe. Violetta extinguished the flames by closing her fingers over her palm into a fist. She gave Viper a bit of a smug look.

“Think the others will want to know?” She teased. Viper gave her an exasperated look and dropped the Mist barrier. The rest of the group looked to Viper semi-curiously. It was obvious they didn’t expect to actually end up signing the contract. Violetta took great pleasure in Viper informing the others:

“You will regret it for the rest of your lives if you don’t sign.” She wasn’t sure about them regretting it for the entirety of the remainder of their lives, but she agreed that they probably would regret it. Especially if they later found out she is a Sky.

Intrigued, the others agreed to sign the contract that they wouldn’t give Violetta’s secrets away intentionally or otherwise. When Violetta again allowed her three flames to dance on her palm. Their eyes all gained the same hungry look Viper wore a moment ago. Viper still looked that way, actually. Their collective disappointment was nowhere to be found.

“Tricky, hiding your Sky flame behind another of your flames.” Lal Mirch approved.

“Why thank you, Lal.”

“What order are your flames?” Verde wondered.

“My primary is Sky, which is why it’s the flame listed in my school file. Cloud and Mist tie for my secondary flame.” She told them, somewhat relieved to have it out in the open.

“Will you allow us to continue courting you?” Colonello pleaded. She smiled into the begging blue eyes.

“I wouldn’t have told you if I wasn’t considering you lot.” She replied honestly. “Will you let tell me if you plan to join my Saturday classes now?” She returned. The others, excepting Viper, looked rather startled.

“You have classes on Saturday?” Lal inquired. Violetta nodded.

“I do.” And then she gave them the run-down of their courses. She finished with: “my classes end on three thirty on Saturdays, though. Of course I don’t have any courses on Sundays. I wouldn’t object to spending some more time with you all then. If you aren’t busy.”

“Do you attend church on Sunday?” Fon asked curiously. She mentally praised him for making sure of what he was getting into. Not that he heard her mental praise, obviously. They weren’t bonded after all.

“I don’t. My parents are catholic, but there are some private personal reasons I don’t feel comfortable joining any current religion. Are any of you very religious? I’m have nothing against you if you are, but it might … cause problems between us if you are of certain religions and we bonded. I’ve no wish to get into that sort of a situation.” Most of the others denied being strongly religious, although Renato, Colonello, and Lal Mirch all admitted to going to catholic church because the mafia was strongly catholic and it helped them make connections.

“Will that be a problem for you?” Lal Mirch inquired. “Because we could stop going. It’s more for show than anything.”

“No, don’t do that. Just don’t ask me to go with you.” She sighed, thinking of burning and stoned witches again. She just couldn’t support religions that burned her people at the stake. Neither was she into any religion of a single world and reality. They just didn’t apply to the Master of Death.

The car pulled up in front of the restaurant, and Violetta was the first to hop out. She practically _danced_ into the restaurant, excited to once more get her Ramen fix.

* * *

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**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't know how I feel about that fight scene between Diego and Violetta...I'm just starting to learn how to write fight scenes... *sighs*. So of course I chose to write in KHR and Naruto, which are all about the fighting. Or at least have a lot of fighting scenes. What do you think? Was the fight okay?
> 
> Thank you for all the lovely reviews! I do read them, even if I don't reply. They really inspire me to to write. And the nice ones make my day. :D
> 
> Also, a disclaimer: I have nothing against religions in general or Christians or Catholics in specific. I just think it doesn't make sense for a Witch that was raised to revere 'mother magic' (which is a headcannon I've adopted) to practice a different religion, even if magic isn't 'a thing' on that world. Plus, having been taught over the course of many lifetimes that Christians tend to burn/stone witches, she's understandably nervous about telling any Christians that she's a witch. "The Reveal" has also gone badly for her before. 
> 
> On a not completely different note, I should probably not have been listening to catholic choirs singing for an hour while trying to choose songs for Violetta's choir to sing.
> 
> Well, that's all for now. I'm thinking I will split my Mafia High AU off and post it as it's own story sometime soon. Not right now, though.
> 
> See you next posting, hopefully.
> 
> ~ Wingzrooke


	8. Ch 8: Siblings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ri's first time having a sibling.

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* * *

It was a first for Sirina. She’d never had a sibling before. Okay, not _entirely_ true. She’d had chosen siblings, brothers and sisters not of blood but of choice, battle, and circumstance. This was the first time she’d had a blood sibling, though. A brother, born just ten minutes after herself. It was also the first time her mind had awoken early, instead of awakening all her memories and self at the age of five or six, out of surprise and not trauma or danger. What woke her? Her younger twin’s Sky flames wrapping around her agitated self. The wetness and slight tightness on her cheeks told her she’d probably been crying just a moment before. It was a good sign that the boy snuggled up next to her cared enough, even as an infant, to wrap his flames around her.

She didn’t know then who they were, or what world she’d been born into. Right then, she didn’t care. There was none of the Kyuubi’s antagonistic chakra, nor any angry flames or chakra of anyone else. They weren’t in danger. She could afford to wrap her own Sky flames around the tiny boy next to her. That was the first memory in her most recent lifetime.

Time Skip – now 16 years old

Tsunako, oldest daughter of Sawada Nana and Iemitsu, watched from behind half-lidded eyes as the new tutor held court at their table. Her beloved twin, Tsunayoshi (their parents weren’t very inventive with names), was playing up his reactions from across the table. It was too early for Ko to really react, but even so a couple of his antics made her want to smile. She didn’t, of course, there was a stranger present. But she wanted to. Instead she sipped at the wake up tea in her cup. Their mother had gone back into the kitchen for something, Ko didn’t know what because she wasn’t paying attention, and this latest version of Reborn was probably telling Yoshi all about training him to be a Mafia boss.

More than his talk, though, the tiny cursed man’s flames were distracting her. They kept calling to her, even before Nana let him in the house. He needed, and more importantly _wanted_ a Sky. It was almost painful, hearing the call of his flames. It tugged at both her flames and her heartstrings. Not that she thought he was doing it on purpose, no. He very obviously had no idea his flames were calling out to her. He’d yet to even acknowledge her existence, other than a nod at the very beginning. Strange, if the ninth had chosen Yoshi for his heir, she would have thought Iemitsu would insist on Tsunako being kept in the dark. Every Iemitsu Sawada that she knew of was the type to keep his family in the dark and civilian if at all possible, and by any means necessary except hurting his famiglia.

It was a dilemma. She did not yet know if the Hitman could be trusted with her precious younger brother. In all the lives she’d lived, Reborn had just as often been sent to kill her as to train her. Regardless of what that version of him told her. Since they’d been born, the two of them had never grown apart. They’d given in to sharing separate rooms, but other than that the two of them were each other’s closest and first ally in all things. His flames called so prettily…though…

Tsunayoshi Sawada, younger twin by ten minutes and devoted younger brother, watched the hitman with eighty percent of his attention. The other twenty percent was taken up with watching his older sister Tsunako’s reaction to the new tutor hitman. She seemed… _intrigued_ by the tiny Sun. It was, to be honest, almost relieving. It would have been totally relieving, if the cursed man hadn’t been sent by Vongola. Anyone else, and Yoshi would have started trying to test the person as a Guardian Candidate for Ko. But Vongola and those they sent could not be trusted.

They’d already tried to kill the twins when they were six years old, after all. If his sister didn’t have the knowledge and experience of past lives, the two of them would have been sealed and probably died. Thankfully she did have all that, and was a sealing master to boot, though. For ten years the two of them managed to live without the interference of Vongola, only having to pretend to suffer the problems of being sealed instead of actually living through them.

Unfortunately, Yoshi couldn’t write off the hitman as unsuitable due to allies and bosses. He’d been seeking to help his sister find appropriate Guardians and bond for years now, and still she’d yet to ever show interest before. Yet to show interest before this hitman showed up. Could he afford to reject the teaching of this man, and also the possibility of Ko finally gaining a guardian? He didn’t think he could. Even if it meant he’d have to deal with Vongola and running the stupid organization.

“Alright. I’ll do it.” Yoshi agreed, obviously surprising the Hitman. One of the man’s black eyebrows rose up until it was covered by the brim of the fedora.

“Oh? I thought it would be harder to convince you…” The man murmured, looking (it must be said) a little disappointed. Yoshi just shrugged. It wasn’t the hitman’s business where Yoshi found his motivation.

Reborn wasn’t expecting the boy to agree so easily. It was a bit of shame he didn’t have to do more to convince the boy, but he fully expected Tsunayoshi would change his tune once he realized how intense the training was. Every day Reborn expected the boy to throw his hands up and declare he wouldn’t become a mafia boss. Yet it didn’t happen. It had been a week now, and the boy was still determinedly complying with Reborn’s directives. Nor was the girl attempting to interfere, as he assumed she would.

Not once did she object to the harsh training her brother was undergoing. In fact sometimes she even suggested ways the boy could make it harder on himself to improve faster! It was her gift of wrist and ankle weights to the boy which say Tsunayoshi wearing them everywhere proudly. Anytime the boy seemed low or discouraged, Tsunako was right there cheering him up and helping him regain determination. Often she joined in on the training, too. It was hard for Tsunayoshi to object, it seemed, if his beloved twin sister was right there doing an activity with him.

Perhaps it was because Reborn had never had a twin, or a sibling of any kind, but the close bond the two shared continually surprised him. When Nono gave the job to Reborn, Iemitsu tried to demand the girl be kept in the dark and civilian. Reborn had made no promises, and felt only relief at that fact when he met the twins. From the very first time he met them, it was clear the two shared a bond stronger than any Reborn had seen excepting a Sky and their Guardians. There was no way even Reborn would have been able to separate the two and keep her in the dark. Especially since the girl had a weird sort of way of _knowing_ where her twin was and when he was training. Several times, as a test, Reborn snuck Tsunayoshi out to train long before the girl was normally up. He even woke the boy quietly. Yet, only a few seconds later the girl would join them.

Then he’d shot Tsunayoshi with the deathperation bullet, and it all became immediately clear. When Tsunayoshi lit up in brilliant amber flames, his twin did as well. Not only that, but there was a bond between the two Skies. It was hidden in the flare and curling of the rest of their flames and a lesser man would have missed it, but Reborn was the World’s Best Hitman. He may not have known what kind of bond it was, but he could still see it. A bond between Skies had never been heard of, that Reborn knew. Yet there it was. Perhaps it was because they were twins. All his reports indicated the twins had been oddly aware and close to each other right from birth. It may have to do with sharing space in the same womb at the same time. That was more Verde’s area than Reborn’s, though.

Even as great as he was, Reborn _did_ miss something, though. It took him a full week to realize the girl twin, Tsunako, was watching him thoughtfully. Not overtly, of course, and never directly. But sometimes he’d feel a gaze on him when it was only the three of them around and Tsunayoshi was otherwise distracted. The girl did not _seem_ to be looking at him, but Reborn found she was skilled in watching someone without looking right at them. A curious skill for a civilian without many friends to cultivate. If she’d been a mafia brat he would have expected it of her. How very strange.

He wondered what she was looking for. Whatever it was, she seemed to make up her mind on Sunday of the new week. That morning at breakfast, Reborn felt the lightest of strokes of Tsunako’s Sky flame against his. For the first time her eyes were directly upon him, bold and with a silent offer in them.

Was…was this young girl trying to court him into her Sky? It wasn’t preposterous, Reborn had yet to meet a Sky other than one of his students that _didn’t_ try to court him. Regardless of age or famiglia. It was strange, though. Who had taught her about Guardians? Reborn hadn’t even thought of bringing up the subject yet with Tsunayoshi, and definitely not with Tsunako whom he was not training. Despite her insistence on joining in exercises with Tsunayoshi. Perhaps she was doing it instinctively?

It didn’t _really_ matter how she knew, or if she did at all. Reborn wasn’t easy. There was only one answer to give to a first attempt, and Reborn gave it immediately after the flames brushed against him gently. His own flames burst outward in vicious spikes, much like a hedgehog in defensiveness. Immediately the girl withdrew her flames, unlike some people Reborn could name. Then she did an odd thing. She gave him a single nod, as though acknowledging an agreement or point in an argument.

It was only as Tsunayoshi’s shoulders slumped that Reborn remembered they had an audience. He turned thoughtful dark eyes upon his student, but Tsunayoshi was now looking down at his Miso soup determinedly. Reborn spoke to him, and though Tsunayoshi answered he still would not meet Reborn’s eyes.

The Sun didn’t know it then, but that morning would mark a turning point in Reborn’s life.

Another week later, and Reborn was beyond frustrated with the twins. Tsunayoshi _still_ wouldn’t meet Reborn’s eyes. Not only that, but Reborn had the feeling that Tsunayoshi was disappointed in him. As though Reborn had failed to meet some critical measurement. His student also wasn’t making progress like before. Perhaps introducing a minion into the equation would help encourage the boy not to slack off. As bad as the boy’s lack of interest and respect was, though, it was nothing on Reborn’s frustration with Tsunako.

Since he’d rejected her first advance on him, she had stopped pursuing him altogether. She still interacted with him when it would be rude not to, like mealtime or if she needed to coordinate some part of her and Tsunayoshi’s schedule. Otherwise, however, she’d started to do her own thing. No longer did she join Tsunayoshi when he was training, which Reborn suspected to be half the reason Tsunayoshi wasn’t training as well. Instead she went off to do other things, though Reborn didn’t know what. Despite having followed once or twice. Somehow the girl managed to shake him off.

Normally after gauging how fierce the element was in their first rejection, the Sky would then decide how much courting the element required. Then they begin to attempt the Sky Attraction phase. They would give the element gifts, attempt to spend time with them, and get to know the element in question if they were previously strangers. Yet the girl did none of this. Reborn waited patiently after that first morning, but instead of drawing closer to him in an attempt to win him over…Tsunako did the opposite.

It was as though she’d forgotten about him. HIM! Forgotten! He just didn’t understand it.

Yoshi sighed as the new transfer student ambushed him just outside the school. The boy made some bogus claim about being made the head of Vongola if he killed Yoshi. Reborn, the tiny troll, naturally went along with the plot. Assuming the man hadn’t set all this up in the first place. On second thought, this was all probably Reborn’s fault. Yoshi wanted to roll his eyes, but that wouldn’t help him so he refrained.

Silently he watched silently as the silver-haired teen (what was his name again….?) attempted to draw Yoshi into his fight. Finally the teen gave up on drawing Yoshi into the confrontation with words alone. The boy pulled out dynamite and started throwing. Most people would probably be alarmed by the overwhelming amounts of dynamite coming at them.

Most people weren’t Tsunako’s twin. Despite what Reborn (and more importantly Vongola) thought, Tsunayoshi had trained since the age of six (right after the sealing incident) to protect himself. It was no trouble at all to dodge the dynamite. If he cared to, that is. And the explosives being thrown at him weren’t all that dangerous, really. Sure, if they hit or landed too close they could hurt him, but they didn’t have a very big range. So Yoshi just batted them away from himself, tilting his head to let Reborn’s bullet fly past instead of hitting him again, and stayed put.

The explosives he batted away left small craters in the sidewalk and gardens surrounding them, but Yoshi didn’t really care. Anyone else might have been frightened, because Hibari was a demon in human skin when it came to his precious Namimori High School, but the twins and Hibari had long past come to an understanding. Hibari didn’t bother the twins, and they left him and his territory alone. Despite what everyone thought, after all, Hibari was neither the strongest or best fighter in Namimori. He also wasn’t the first active Cloud, or the ruling Cloud in the area.

Those titles belonged to Yoshi’s big sister. Thankfully Ko was also an inverted Cloud, so there was no problem with Hibari claiming Namimori in general and the school in particular as his territory. Ko’s territory only included people. More specifically people she thought of as _hers_. So far, that included only Yoshi. He still hoped that someday she would gain at least one guardian and then he might have someone to share her attention with. Despite what Reborn obviously thought, Reborn’s attentions and ‘training’ was not the hardest to bear.

When Ko decided someone was hers, she also took their training and protection seriously. Training under Reborn was more like a break, really. So Yoshi had very little reason to fear the damage done to the surroundings. Hibari would most likely take it out on the one truly responsible: the silver-haired transfer student. As Yoshi thought that, the other boy lost the last remains of his patience. The boy attempted to send some sort of bigger attack.

“Triple bomb!” Gokudera yelled, lighting a bunch of dynamite only to fumble and drop them at his own feet. Instead of doing the sensible thing and getting out of the way, the boy just got this resigned look on his face and stood there. Now Yoshi had no attachment to Gokudera at this point. That didn’t mean he wanted to watch the idiot kill himself.

With a silent sigh, Yoshi jolted forward and the left slightly so another bullet missed him. He didn’t stop once he was out of range of the bullet, though. Instead Yoshi enhanced his muscles just slightly with chakra, as Ko taught him, and flew forward. The silverette obviously wasn’t expecting help, because Yoshi easily grabbed the taller teen around the waist and flew away ten feet. Gokudera was gasping, having gotten the wind knocked out of him when Yoshi grabbed him, as Yoshi set the teen on his own two feet. The ‘triple bomb’ exploded behind them, and Gokudera gaped.

“You…you saved me!” The teen exclaimed in shock, and Yoshi just barely refrained from rolling his eyes. He could feel Ko’s gaze on the situation. Though it was obvious the others were unaware, Yoshi and Ko always knew where the other was. Currently Ko was perched in a nearby tree, hidden amongst the leaves while keeping a watch on the situation. Not that she needed to, the worrywart. Then Gokudera dropped to his knees. It wasn’t quite a kowtow, but the silverette looked about one step away from throwing himself entirely on the ground.

“I apologize. You are worthy of becoming the next Head of Vongola. Boss, I will follow you to the ends of the earth. Your wish is my command.” The silverette vowed.

“What.” Yoshi demanded flatly. How, exactly, had Gokudera gone from opponent to servant?

“The loser serves the winner. It’s our Famiglia’s code.” Reborn helpfully informed Yoshi. Yoshi felt his left eye twitch. Famiglia’s code, huh? That sounded like a setup if he ever heard one. Ko radiated her amusement from her position in the tree. It was hard to resist the urge to scowl at her. Of course she found this funny. Sisters.

“Actually, I didn’t really intend to become the tenth generation boss.” Gokudera continued, and Yoshi felt his eye twitch again. Definitely a setup. “I just wanted to test your abilities to see if your strong enough.”

“Why didn’t you just ask for a spar, then?” Yoshi sighed, but Gokudera kept going as though Yoshi hadn’t spoken at all.

“But I was an idiot! You’ve exceeded my expectations! You even risked your life to save me, your enemy!” Yoshi was a little touched by the other boy’s words, although he was a bit uncomfortable with the way Gokudera was looking at him now. Besides, Yoshi hadn’t actually risked his life for the boy. Yoshi had never really been in any danger. “I, Gokudera Hayato, place my life in your hands!”

“What.” Yoshi found himself repeating. “I can’t be responsible for your life! Can’t we just be classmates?” Yoshi found himself continuing after his brain had a chance to reboot.

“We can’t.” Gokudera denied, eyes narrowed dangerously. Had the boy gone back to wanting to kill Yoshi? It was hard to tell, in that moment.

“Well done, Yoshi. Because of your strength, you’ve gained your first soldier. You pass for today. Since you didn’t rely on my deathperation shot.” Reborn announced. Seriously, how was this his life?! At least Ko was enjoying this, he thought.

“Tenth! I will be the best right-hand man and Guardian-!” Gokudera began to explain. Immediately all of Yoshi’s thoughts paused and redirected to the situation at hand.

“Impossible.” Yoshi denied, voice flat. Everyone else seemed to pause, looking stunned. Even Reborn looked surprised, and that midget seemed utterly unflappable. Guilt gnawed on Yoshi as Gokudera’s face fell.

“Of course, forgive me! I got above myself. Of course Tenth must already have a right-hand man…” Gokudera wailed, still on his knees.

“It’s not that….” Yoshi began, and then hesitated. Gokudera had paused his wailing at Yoshi’s quiet words, and looked like he was hanging on every word. “It’s just that I can’t take on a Guardian when my older sister still doesn’t have even one.” He admitted at length. From her tree, Ko radiated disapproval. Well, let her disapprove. It was Yoshi’s right to choose when and to whom he bonded, after all.

“Older sister?” Gokudera murmured, looking confused.

“That’s not the way it works, Dame-Yoshi.” Reborn began to lecture. Yoshi immediately drew himself up straight.

“Perhaps not for you westerners. Don’t presume to lecture me on my culture and our expectations when it comes to Guardians and bonding, Reborn.” Yoshi retorted flatly. He was well aware, of course, that it had nothing to do with Japan (or even Asia’s) culture. If he moved on and took Guardians, though, there was a good chance Ko would decide she was content as is. She would settle for _never_ having guardians, and that was not something Yoshi could allow. He wanted her to be happy. Unfortunately his words just now seemed to have the opposite effect. In a blur that Yoshi was sure the other two couldn’t even see, Ko leapt from her tree to stand at Yoshi’s side.

“Foolish little brother, that’s not how _our_ culture works either. This one will be an excellent Guardian. Don’t let him get away just because I haven’t found one yet.” She scolded.

“Hime, it’s been over ten years. You haven’t so much as looked twice at any of the possible candidates. Some of them you don’t even look at once! If I get a full set, you’ll just be content to be happy for me! And then you’ll be all alone.” He retorted. His twin shook her head.

“If I don’t find someone, then I don’t find someone. That doesn’t mean you should stop living your life, little brother. Look at him, can’t you hear his flames calling to yours?” Ko scolded, and then entreated. As a matter of fact, Yoshi _could_ hear Gokudera’s flames calling to Yoshi’s. It was a very strong call, the strongest Yoshi had ever heard. To his internal shame, his determination wavered slightly. His twin, who always knew how Yoshi was feeling, pounced on the small opening.

“You know, they say he’s a genius. And he’s not just your ordinary element, either.” She murmured. Across from them, Gokudera flushed.

“What do you mean?” Yoshi gave in to her. His sister’s words were not her only persuasion. She was his Sky, after all. Although he was not a Guardian like anyone else would recognize (due only to being her brother and therefore not eligible for the full regular bond), their Skies were still intimately intertwined. Her flames urged his to move forth towards the silverette.

“He’s like me, can’t you sense it?” Ko breathed. Yoshi tilted his head but opened up his flame sense obediently. Then…

“Oh.” Yoshi breathed. “Is that…does he have every flame except Sky?” He demanded incredulously. And yet he could feel the boy’s multiple flames reaching for hm.

“Sky and Mist. He’s got _five flames_ , Yoshi. Don’t tell me you’re going to pass up getting a guardian with that many options and the first we’ve come across who’s flame strength matches your own so well.” She said, and Yoshi sighed. She was right. As usual. “Someone else will snap him up first if you aren’t careful.” She warned, and Yoshi grumbled under his breath. “What was that?” She teased. Yoshi gave her the _look_ he felt her comment deserved, but it seemed to roll right off her. She gentled her own look on him. They both knew they’d come to an agreement, that Yoshi had given in to her advice. Naturally, Ko turned her attention to Gokudera.

“Gokudera Hayato.” She intoned seriously, and the boy straightened up under Ko’s gaze.

“Hai!” the silverette immediately replied.

“You have put forth yourself as a Guardian candidate for my little brother. Come stand before me and be judged.” Ko intoned. Yoshi saw a shiver roll down the silverette’s back, but the other teen immediately stood up and followed Ko’s directions.

“Gokudera, do you swear that you will always be loyal, faithful, and true to Sawada Tsunayoshi?”

“Yes!” Gokudera immediately pledged. One corner of Ko’s mouth twitched before she schooled her face back to impassiveness.

“The correct answer is ‘I do so swear’.” Yoshi whispered to Gokudera. The teen flushed once more, but quickly corrected himself.

“I do so swear!” he exclaimed. Ko nodded once.

“Will you take on his battles as your own: partners in battle, in bond, and in all things?” Ko added.

“I will! I mean, I do so swear!”

“Do you swear to always put Sawada Tsunayoshi first, in all things, and to never seek to replace him or put another on the same level?”

“I do so swear!” Gokudera chanted. Ko nodded to the boy once more, then turned her gaze on Tsunayoshi. Her eyes were gleaming with her Sky flames, and if he’d been anyone else he might have found that gaze hard to bear. As it was, Yoshi felt only her love, affection, and the seriousness of the moment. Then she ran Tsunayoshi through his own questions.

“And you, Sawada Tsunayoshi. Do you swear to be equal partners with Gokudera Hayato? In battle, bond, and all things? Do you swear to be true to him and his position, to do your best by him always? Do you swear to listen to his advice and respect his opinions? To treasure and defend him regardless of others?”

“I do so swear.” Yoshi agreed.

“Very well, then I agree to and bless this union of Sky and Guardian.” Ko intoned, and Yoshi could _feel_ her taking on her title and mantel of the Master of Death when she spoke this time. The other two shuddered, and looked around a little warily as they sensed Death nearby. They were hitmen, they knew when Death was near. Even if they didn’t consciously realize it.

Ko spared no time for the distracted members of their party. She held out a hand to both Yoshi and Gokudera. The boys both gave her one of their own hands, though Gokudera was turning almost completely red at this point. Ko gently brought the two hands together, her Sky flames pulling both Yoshi and Gokudera’s flames together.

Yoshi allowed his own flames to bind all five of Gokudera’s flames to Yoshi’s Sky. They both breathed in sharply as the awareness of the other bloomed in their mind. Already the bond was strong, despite being new!

“Congratulations and welcome to the family, Hayato.” Ko murmured warmly, leaning forward and gently kissing his cheek. That did it, the silverette was completely red now.

“Congratulations on your first Guardian, little brother.” Ko’s words to Yoshi were said a little wickedly. Yoshi sighed.

“You know it’ll be different, for me.” He reproved gently. Ko shrugged.

“Is there a reason the bonding ceremony sounded like a wedding?” Reborn demanded. Instead of answering, Ko just smiled blandly at him.

“That’s a family matter. We don’t discuss it with outsiders.” Yoshi snapped, feeling his temper with the man finally give. The man rejects Yoshi’s sister, and then has the gall to ask about family matters? Reborn looked slightly taken aback, as did Gokudera for a second. Then the silverette seemed to remember his oaths and stepped up to stand at Yoshi’s right shoulder with his arms crossed seriously.

“Easy, Yoshi. Just because Reborn did not wish to be a part of our family doesn’t mean you should lash out at him.” Ko soothed, gently placing a hand on his left shoulder. Yoshi grumbled under his breath and turned his head away. He allowed his gaze to scorch the sidewalk instead of Reborn. The words startled Gokudera, who looked to Yoshi questioningly.

“You asked him to be your Guardian?” The boy wondered, but Yoshi shook his head.

“Not I. Even if I had been interested in him, I would never take a Guardian that Hime was interested in. It’s hard enough to find Guardian Candidates for her as it is.” Yoshi immediately denied.

“What do you mean, I didn’t wish to be a part of your family?! I’ve been waiting for Tsunako to act for weeks now!” Reborn protested, looking irritated.

“You rejected her!” Yoshi accused, his gaze snapping back to the irate hitman.

“I only rejected her first advance!” The hitman snarled back.

“She offered, and you rejected her so violently it hurt! It even hurt me, and I wasn’t even in the same direction as Hime!” Yoshi yelled back. The hitman’s face drained of color a little bit.

“It shouldn’t have hurt.” The cursed man began to say at the same time as Ko interrupted, saying:

“You made it perfectly clear you have no interest in being my Guardian. Consent is important, everyone who’s worth having knows that. I’m not going to pester someone who isn’t interested. That’s like asking someone out and then not taking no for an answer. No means no.” The Sun looked a little struck dumb by her words.

“Not in Italy.” Gokudera’s words came softly from behind the twins. Both turned to regard him, heads cocked identically to the right. Seeing he had their intention, Gokudera continued a little louder.

“In Italy, a Sky makes their interest made known by brushing their flames up against an element, or giving them an offering with a tiny wisp of their flames attached. Then the element either accepts or rejects, but only a verbal or written rejection is final. Any other sort of rejection is the equivalent of ‘try harder’.” Gokudera explained.

“That makes no sense.” Ko protested.

“It’s how things have always been done.” Gokudera shrugged. Ko turned her head slowly until her gaze rested on Reborn thoughtfully. Reborn, whose fedora was tilted down and hiding his expression.

* * *

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not much to say about this one. Leaving it up to your imagination whether Reborn ends up as her Guardian or not. 
> 
> Hope this one was okay.
> 
> ~Wingzrooke


	9. Ch 9: Spars

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This time Sirina is born as Daniella de Vongola II. As we join her story, she is starting her new high school, at a mafia boarding school. 
> 
> Sorry, bad summary this time. >,< It's late, and I spent all my creative energy on the story.

* * *

* * *

Daniella the second, sometimes born as Tsunako or Sirina or Naruko, looked around her new dorm room, pleased. She’d turned sixteen just before being sent off to boarding school, and was looking forward to the new experience. Thankfully she’d get this first year on ‘her own’, without either bodyguards or her younger brother Timoteo.

Her room, specifically, was shared with three other girls. She’d chosen to get one of the less expensive rooms. Not so much to save money, after all Vongola could well afford the more expensive dorm rooms several thousand times over. No, she chose the less expensive dorms because she was hoping the girls in these dorms would be more ‘real’ and nicer than the pampered princesses Daniella had met in the mafia thus far in this lifetime.

The room included two closets, four beds, and four desks. The two closets were, obviously, shared between two girls each. There was also a bathroom on each floor that was shared by every girl’s dorm on their floor. The girl’s dorms took up the left side of their end of the building, the boy’s dorms took up the right. There were four floors, and Daniella’s dorm was on the third floor. The top and ground-level floors were reserved for the high-class/more expensive dorms. Daniella’s dorm was also at the end of the hallway on her level, on the right-hand side.

When she entered the dorm, she found she was the second one there. The first girl was no longer in the room, but a suitcase had been tossed up on the top “bunk” on the right side of the room. She thought bunk, but really it was a lofted bed with a regular bed underneath it. Daniella had her pick of all but the one bed, which pleased her greatly. There were, of course, four beds. Two lofted beds that had their headboards up against the same wall but in opposite corners, and their length ran along the wall on opposite sides of the room from each other.

Beneath each bed was a desk and a regular bed (which she thought of as a bottom bunk) that sat perpendicular to the lofted bed, their headboards on opposite walls from each other and their footboards facing each other. The desks for the lower beds were behind the ladder to the lofted beds, and also underneath the lofted beds but facing the rest of the room. Someone could sit and work at the desk and still see the rest of the room, minus the interruption of the metal ladder. 

On the far wall were two more desks, these facing the opposite direction so someone could work there and still see the rest of the room while having a wall at their back. On the right wall, just past the bed with the already taken top bunk, were the two closets, built into the wall. The left wall had a large window that went from about where Daniella’s hip would be if she stood next to it, all the way to an inch from the ceiling. It extended almost to where the bottom bed started on that side.

She floundered for a moment, instincts warring over which bed to take. She knew it would be one of the ones on the left wall, but could not decide between top and bottom. At length she chose the bottom bunk, because the bottom bunk had an openable window while the top bunk didn’t. It was also more defensible. Though she’d decided on the bottom bed, she didn’t want to feel so closed-in. Instead she dragged the desk in the opposite corner of the room closer to the bunks and turned it so it faced away from the window. Next she dragged her own desk into the corner, but turned it so it ran parallel with the other desk she’d just moved.

Quickly she grabbed her backpack and unloaded all her things into the desk she’d claimed, so there’d be no fighting over it later. Then she put her books on top of the desk, with bookends on either side, and placed her notebooks, pen/pencil cup on top, and called it good. Next Daniella unpacked everything else, quickly covering the bed with her own sheets, blankets, and pillows from home. A nice rug placed just in front of the side of her bed, and another under the chair behind her desk and Daniella was almost finished. Next she placed all her clothes into the closet closest to the door, but on the left side away from the door. Her shoes were lined up underneath, and she took one last look around the room. For a moment she debated where to put her toiletries bag.

She’d heard about the pranks that went on in the dorms, and definitely did not want to leave her toiletries in the bathroom where anyone could get at them. Their actual room at least had a turn-lock on it, even if it wasn’t a very good one. A small bit of Mist flames and no one else would think to take her things or even register there was stuff there. To everyone else, it would be as if it just didn’t exist. Nor the space it was occupying. Finally done, Daniella stretched a little and then went to leave the room.

Another girl came in as Daniella was going out, and Daniella gave the girl a brief nod. She didn’t turn around, though, she wanted to get familiar with the layout of the rest of the school first. It wasn’t her first time going to a ‘mafia school’, but this one was completely different in looks and function to her first experience. She exited her dorm and walked down the hallway to the stairs, passing other rooms as she went. She walked down the two staircases on the girl’s side of the building and entered into the common room.

The common room was a fairly cozy structure in the center of the building, with open balconies facing it on each floor from the dormitory side of the building. It also had an open ceiling all the way up to the roof, which had a couple skylights and a fancy chandelier that was suspended by a single cable down to a standard room height light. In the center between the two sides of dormitories, there was both a fireplace and an elevator, an open area of wall with bench-style seating, and then the two doors for the male or female dorms at opposite ends.

The common room itself had two sets of seating, made up of four long couches and a coffee table each which took up the two halves of the middle of the room.

Daniella left the girl’s dorms doorway and went to explore the doors on the opposite side of the common room. The first door was slightly more to the left than the girl’s dorm door was to the right (when facing each door), but otherwise directly opposite each other. She entered that doorway and walked down a long hall which had classrooms on either side, four on the left side and three on the right. At the very end of that hallway was a door set in the far wall. When Daniella peeked inside, she found the cafeteria. Presumably behind the cafeteria lie the kitchens. There were no other entrances to the cafeteria except a door on the right hand wall which probably led outside, so she retraced her steps back to the common room.

Next Daniella tried the door in the middle of the same wall as the first door, down this hallway she found herself one very large auditorium-style classroom on the right-hand side and then a workshop that looked set up to do just about any type of project imaginable, excepting perhaps autobody work. On the left side of the hallway there were three doors, all of which Daniella found led to the back of a stage. When she walked out on the stage, she found there was an actual auditorium beyond it, with rising, tiered seating and balconies.

This hallway also had a door at the end of the hall. Poking her head inside, Daniella found a gym and workout room, which had everything from a basketball court to exercise machines. There was a door far down the gym, on the left side, but Daniella thought it was probably a doorway to the next hallway over. Instead of exiting through the new door, she once more retraced her steps and entered the last doorway to this part of the building. The first door on her right was the other side of the auditorium, and the last door on the right was the other side of the gym, as she’d guessed. On the left side of the hallway, the first and third doors were some sort of sparring or wrestling gym, while the middle door led to the girl’s changing rooms.

When she entered one of the sparring rooms, she saw that the boy’s changing rooms were right behind the girl’s, but only had doors to either sparring gym and not to the hallway itself. Obviously she couldn’t enter the boy’s locker room, so she wasn’t sure if it had another door to the outside or not.

Having finished reviewing the dormitory building, Daniella left to explore other parts of the school.

* * *

School so far had been going well, even sharing a room had yet to drive Daniella insane. All that practice at Hogwarts was standing her in good stead now. It helped that she only had two other girls assigned to her dorm, and the bed above Daniella’s was empty. That lasted for about the first week. The first weekend, Daniella returned to her room to find a boy lounging on the bed above hers. Immediately her fuse was lit.

Not only were boys not supposed to be in the girl’s dormitories (there were very strict rules about this, and supposedly a Mist barrier to stop girls and boys from going into the opposite gendered dorm), but there wasn’t even anyone else present!

“Hey!” She shouted at him, and the boy startled upright.

“What?” He asked, irritated.

“You aren’t allowed to be here. Leave.” Daniella demanded.

“Relax, Maria told me I could wait here for her.” The boy huffed, flopping back down on the bed. True, Daniella _did_ have a roommate Maria. The thing was, Maria was only in the dormitory after dinner, at lights out. The rest of the time the girl was busy with friends, homework, and whatever else it was Maria did. It was highly unlikely that Maria told some random boy to wait in their room. It was _also_ highly unlikely Maria was smart enough or strong enough to fool a Mist barrier, even a weak one. Not only was the girl lightning, she was a weak one. Neither of which would help fool a Mist barrier.

“I’ll tell her you are waiting for her in the common area downstairs. One last warning, _leave_.” Daniella hissed impatiently. She could _feel_ her Cloud flames itching to burst free and teach this boy a lesson. Someone must have heard Daniella yelling, however, for their floor’s ‘dorm monitor’ knocked once on the open door and then entered.

“What’s all the yelling about?” The older teen, a third year, inquired. Daniella huffed.

“There’s a _boy_ in my room. He claims my roommate told him to wait here, but I don’t believe him. Even if she did, though, boys aren’t allowed in here.” Daniella immediately growled. The dorm monitor nodded thoughtfully.

“She’s right, you know. I’ll let you go with a warning this time, but you need to leave the girl’s dorms.” The older teen scolded. The boy huffed, but eventually dragged himself off the upper bed and climbed down to the floor. The monitor escorted him out of the room and, presumably, all the way out of the girl’s side.

Now that he was gone, she wasn’t so upset, but there was still that edge of irritation that gnawed at her. She wished that bed had sheets. Maybe if she’d been able to send the sheets out to be washed, she might have felt better. Alas, no such luck. She picked up the phone just inside the doorway and called down to housekeeping to order a set of extra sheets for that bed. Just in case.

* * *

As usual, her intuition was correct. It was not the only time she ran into that boy, both in the girl’s dorms in general and in her room in particular. After the first time, Daniella wasn’t so lax about chasing him off. The sight of Daniella, a dorm monitor, or even another resident of the girl’s dorms chasing the boy away from their ‘territory’ became a common sight. No one had caught him doing anything bad except being where he shouldn’t yet, though, so mostly he just got a detention here or there.

Since school had started Daniella had made a bunch of friends, but all of them were casual friends. This school didn’t require students to list their flame type, or whether or not they were active. Which meant not only did no one know about her Cloud or Mist flames, they had no idea she was a Sky either. They also didn’t know she was of the Vongola main family. She didn’t want the toadying that came with being openly known as Vongola in the mafia high school.

So it was taking a little longer to find close friends. Then one day, around dinner time, she came upon one of the girls from the ‘rich dorms’ crying in the stairwell. Most of the girls that lived on the top floors used the elevator, so it wasn’t all that surprising she’d chosen the stairwell to cry in. Daniella did her best to comfort the girl, but the girl didn’t want to say what was bothering her. A tiny bit of Sky flames released around them had the girl cracking. It seemed all of the other girls in the fourth-floor dormitories were excluding this girl.

“It’s because I’m from England.” The girl admitted. “I’m the only British girl here, so they’re all forming their cliques without me.”

“I’m sorry. That’s stupid. I’m Daniella. I’m not from these dorms, but I wouldn’t mind being your friend.” Daniella offered in perfect British-accented English. The girl lit up at the sound of a familiar language and accent.

“I’m Sarah. It’s nice to meet you. Your accent is very good. Is it Mist work?” At her question, Daniella shook her head.

“No, I just lived there for a time.” Daniella denied, thinking “ _if by ‘for a time’ I mean ‘a bunch of lifetimes’”_. Sarah seemed thrilled to have a new friend. The girl somehow managed to talk Daniella into having a girl’s night, and then retreated to her room for a moment to grab supplies. When she returned, the girl had a suitcase with her, which made Daniella nervous. They retreated to Daniella’s room, since it was usually empty.

Once they got started, Daniella found she was right to be nervous. They did all the usual things, like face masks, manicures, and pedicures of course. Then Sarah got out some very strange contraptions and ointments. Daniella wasn’t sure what they were or did, but she was sure she didn’t want them anywhere near her.

Once again, Sarah somehow talked Daniella into participating. The sad part was, even after going through it all, Daniella had no idea what the things were or what they were supposed to do. All she could say, is that they hurt. There was one machine which heated up and vibrated which was supposed to be held up under the chin and jaw. It wasn’t a razor or anything, but it did feel a bit like really hot sandpaper. Unpleasant. Daniella whined as Sarah held it in place, and turned her head aside.

“Come on, if you can’t take that one then the others will really be too much…” Sarah sighed. Daniella escaped from the chair and her new torturer…er…friend.

“Sorry, but I’m not into pain. You can do those machines and things if you want. I’ll stick with the regular regimen.” Daniella denied. The other girl seemed disappointed, but Daniella was able to distract her easily enough. By the time the pair of them went down to dinner, dressed up in fancy dresses for fun, they both were smiling and feeling pampered once more.

* * *

Another friend that Daniella made was named Daná. She also met him in a stairwell, although this particular staircase was in one of the regular school buildings. She’d been heading down from the second floor to the first when she heard a surprised and fearful shout behind her. Looking up, Daniella saw a chubby Asian boy falling down the stairs.

Immediately Daniella braced herself with chakra and also used it to make her feet stick to the stair she was on. That was all she had time to do before the boy hit her with his shoulder, his head going over Daniella’s own shoulder. Automatically Daniella wrapped her arms around the boy, halting his forward movement. Since her muscles were reinforced with chakra and she was holding on to the step with the same, she wasn’t pushed backwards down the stairs with him either.

“Careful.” Daniella cautioned as she gently lowered the boy to the step above her. The boy flushed and rubbed the back of his neck.

“Thanks. Sorry about that, I slipped up near the top.” He apologized sheepishly. Daniella waved his words off.

“It happens.” She assured. The boy accompanied Daniella down to the ground floor, and they talked while they walked. It turned out the boy had some of the same classes as Daniella. She offered to study together for those classes, and he accepted. That was how they came to study together twice a week.

* * *

The first time she was supposed to meet Daná for studying, on the following Tuesday, he was running oddly late. Granted it was only ten minutes, but it was still strange. He’d only had to run up to his room after classes and exchange books before they could leave for the library. When he finally came out of the ground-floor entrance to the boy’s dorms, he was oddly flushed and looked irritated.

“Sorry I’m late, let’s go.” Daná huffed. Since she didn’t really want to get into whatever was irritating him, Daniella just shot him one of her patented ‘Sky Smiles’. Little sparkles appeared in the air around her and a tiny bit of her Sky flames leaked out around her as well. Instantly Daná’s mood improved, irritation seemingly forgotten.

The two of them were halfway across campus, on their way to the library, when she realized they were being followed. With a discreet look behind them, using a window they passed, Daniella saw they were being followed by an Asian student perhaps a year older than them.

“Is the person following us a friend of yours?” Daniella asked as quietly as she could and still have him hear her. Naturally, instead of subtly checking in the next reflective window, Daná turned around and scowled at the older boy.

“No. We’re related and he’s a busybody. Ignore him.” Daná announced quietly but vehemently as he turned back around. Daniella shrugged off the strangeness, but kept an eye on the older teen as they passed windows and reflective surfaces. The teen seemed calm, but still trailed after them slowly. It was weird, and his gaze on her back was a bit intense.

Often for the first few months Daniella knew Daná, Daná’s relative would follow them anytime they went somewhere together. The older teen, whose name she still didn’t know, never approached her or warned her off, he just followed silently like a very delayed shadow. Sometimes friends of his would accompany him for a time, and sometimes they’d form their own study group at a nearby table on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It could have been coincidence, but it really wasn’t.

* * *

Despite making new friends and being busy with school and clubs, Daniella still occasionally found _that trespasser_ in the girl’s dormitories. It made her grind her teeth, and something about him just set off her temper. She managed to restrain her temper, for the most part, until the day she came back to her room and found the boy going through one of her roommate’s underwear drawer in the second closet. It wasn’t like Daniella’s clothes were in jeopardy, as Daniella had the first closet all to herself.

Or at least, they weren’t in jeopardy at that precise moment. Not that it mattered. This room was her territory, and it was her job to protect everything in it. Including her roommates’ things. Her temper, which she’d been trying to keep a careful handle on around this creep, snapped.

She flew at the boy, grabbed him by the collar, and dragged him kicking and screaming to the balcony of the third floor dorms. People down below looked up, but no one expected her choice of punishment. She pushed the boy up against the railing, and then (just as he hardened himself with lightning), she leaned back and sideways a little and nailed him in the chest with a side kick. The boy went flying over the railing, making a beautiful arc as he hit the far wall, and then bounced off it and landed in the center of the common room.

Daniella didn’t give the boy time to pull himself together, though. She’d jumped over the edge of the balcony before he’d even hit the far wall. She landed in a three-point crouch, one hand on the ground, and didn’t even dent the floor just as the _trespasser_ landed on the common room floor. The nearby students all scrambled back and away from the commotion, but Daniella ignored them. She stalked over to the boy, picked him up by the collar once more, and began to wail on him.

It took a little while, but her furious Cloud and Sky flames cracked through his Lightning flames and allowed her to beat him up properly. Everyone else in the common room watched on in awe at the raging Cloudy Sky before them. Cloud flames dripped down her body, Sky and Cloud flames covered her fists, and Sky flames lit up her forehead in a crown of flame. Her eyes were a swirled mixture of both flames as well.

“That’ll teach you not to go through girl’s underwear drawers! And to stop sneaking around the girl’s dormitories. Next time you are found in our dorms, you won’t be so lucky as to get off with a beating!” Daniella snarled. The boy, who apparently had no survival instinct, opened his mouth and spewed out ridiculousness.

“And what are you going to do about it? I’m from the main Estraneo Famiglia. No poor orphan girl is going to be able to get away with harming me. You’ll pay for this beating!” He warned. Daniella smiled with all her teeth. It was not a friendly smile. In her anger, she forgot that she’d been trying to keep a lowkey.

“Poor orphan girl? I’m Daniella de Vongola the Second, oldest child of Daniella de Vongola the first, Head of the Vongola Famigilia. Even your own parents won’t back you up. Especially not since you’re long overdue for a beating. You should’ve known better than to cross me, worm.” Daniella declared as she kicked and punched him some more.

She was too busy to hear the shocked and awed intakes of breath around the room at her announcement. As they each felt the purity and strength of her Sky flames, not a one of them doubted her claim. There was one teen, however, who was particularly interested in the newly announced Sky. She didn’t even noticed Daná’s cousin was in the room until after she’d finished with _the trespasser._

She stepped away from the unconscious idiot, and looked up to see Daná’s cousin approaching her cautiously.

* * *

“Would you be willing to spar with me?” The Asian teen asked. Daniella tilted her head to one side.

“I would enjoy that. Have some time now?”

“I do.” He agreed. In the background, Daná’s expression crumbled. Daniella, who still hadn’t noticed anyone not immediately interacting with her (or being acted upon, as the case may be). For the moment, with Daná’s older relative watching her intensely and his flames _just barely_ refraining from reaching for her, Daniella ignored everyone else. Including Daná.

She allowed the older boy to start leading the way out of the room and towards the gym.

“Forgive me, but I never learned your name, or how you’re related to Daná.” She commented as they walked down the hallway.

“Fon. He’s my younger brother.” He replied succinctly.

“Younger brother? How odd. He just told me you were ‘a relative’. Are you two fighting or something? Because that’s how I’d introduce my third cousin’s spouse’s cousin’s spouse’s niece, not my sibling…Same last name as Daná?” She wondered, but the older boy shook his head.

“No. We are half-brothers. We share a mother but not a father. Daná has been…irritated with me. Says I’m too overprotective.” The teen explained, and Daniella turned her head to smile at him slightly where he walked beside her.

“That is much like my younger brother and I. We share a mother but not a father. Of course, our mother is the Head of Vongola, so we still share a surname. Even on official records. But he gets irritated with me when I keep an eye out for him and check who’s been trying to spend time with him.”

“It must be hard, being passed over for your younger brother. Especially since it is your mother that runs Vongola currently.” Fon pried. She had to hand it to him, for a guy who was prying into such private business, he didn’t seem anxious or apologetic at all. She liked that about him.

He’d never been apologetic about following her and Daná around, either. The two things most people knew him for were his martial arts skills, and his unflappable calm nature. She’d heard those things about a teen named Fon before, just hadn’t realized it was Daná’s half-brother they were talking about. No, she knew him for being protective of his family and dedicated. He followed through with his aims, with no apologies. All of these qualities would make for a good guardian, she thought.

As she thought this, they arrived at the second sparring gym. A few people had followed them, trailing behind the couple. Daniella allowed her purple cloud flames to flash in warning through her eyes as she turned and shut the gym door firmly behind Fon and herself. Their shadows must have gotten the message, because Daniella didn’t lock the doors and still no one else entered.

Thankfully no one else was in the gym when they arrived. Now that they didn’t have an audience, Daniella wasted no time. She shed her jacket and began to stretch. Fon copied her, settling down on the floor to do stretches of his own. Thankfully she’d already intended to go workout back before she’d found that Estraneo boy in her room, so she was still in clothing that wouldn’t make sparing difficult.

“Not really.” She answered his earlier question as she bent over her legs and grabbed the outside of her feet so she was bent in half. “I’ve no desire to run Vongola. I’d much rather focus on myself and my Guardians. Let Timo have Vongola. Anyone can run an already established famiglia. If I ever find myself with the desire to run a famiglia, I’ll start my own.” She waved away his concern. Then she switched to doing the sideways splits and lowering her upper body to the floor.

“Timo knows I’m not a threat to his position. If I’d truly wanted it, mother would have named me heiress. She probably wouldn’t have even had Timo, if I wanted to be Vongola’s top Boss.” She admitted. The both of them were silent as they finished stretching out and then took up positions in the middle of the floor.

“Rules?” Fon asked calmly.

“No flames, no weapons. Just hand-to-hand. Other forms of energy are acceptable.” She immediately stated. Surprise briefly painted itself over Fon’s face, but was quickly swallowed up by an anticipatory grin.

“As you say.” He agreed. For a moment more they stood still, eyeing each other. Daniella reinforced her muscles with her chakra, readying herself to move quickly. She felt Fon utilizing a similar energy, although she thought he was probably using Chi. Most people in this world called Chi and Chakra the same thing. Daniella knew differently.

Where chakra was a mixture of spiritual and physical energy, mixed together in the chakra points of the body (but usually specifically in the Hara), Chi was all spiritual energy. Both could be used in combat and effect the physical world, but they were two different types of energy. Although Chakra could be said to contain Chi, as it was half spiritual energy. She mentally shook herself and refocused on the spar before her. She could wool-gather later.

Then, as though some unheard and unseen signal had gone off, the two flew at each other in blurs. She knew even before they started that he would likely be better than her. That didn’t mean she would simply give up. She intended to win, even if it didn’t seem all that likely. Fon, at first, went easy on her. It seemed he did not expect her to have any training in hand-to-hand at all. It was a fair assumption, since most mafia members fought with guns or other weapons and a brawling or boxing style. Martial arts, like the styles Fon practiced, were not commonly taught to westerners during this age.

Daniella, who lived lifetimes as Uzumaki Naruko, wasn’t just a westerner. Nor was she solely from this time. She met every thrust and kick with a block and a counter of her own. Slowly the two of them sped up as they tested each other and attempted to learn the other’s style and movements. A tiny flash of triumph flickered inside Daniella when she managed to land a punch to Fon’s solar plexus. He retaliated with a sweep of her legs that caused her to jump backwards and break off momentarily.

Fon didn’t give her a chance to recover, jumping after her and coming in with an open-handed jab towards her throat. She blocked that and responded with a kick towards his side at the same time, causing Fon to move out of the way this time. They were pretty evenly matched, and to her surprise she was making Fon work harder for a win than she’d thought. He, too, seemed surprised but pleasantly so. He seemed to be enjoying their spar as much as she did.

They spared for a good twenty-one minutes before Fon finally pinned her, a new record. The previous record was ten minutes. She’d more than doubled that time. She lay panting on the floor beneath him for a moment, her arms pinned above her head and feeling her eyes flash amber and violet up at him. His own eyes shone the brilliant scarlet of his Storm flames, darkened slightly with what looked like hunger.

“Do I get a prize for winning?” He asked huskily, and Daniella felt herself flush.

“Not this time. All prizes have to be agreed upon as terms of the spar. Maybe next time?” She retorted, ignoring her traitorous body’s reaction to his gaze.

“Next time?” He asked, looking pleased that there would be a next time.

“Tomorrow? After classes?” She offered, and he nodded agreeably. “Going to let me up anytime soon?” She laughed at him. He gave her a bit of a sultry smirk.

“Maybe.” He replied and she laughed. He eased up on her then, standing and offering her a hand up. She took the hand up and brushed off her pants. Then she wrinkled her nose as sweat dripped from her hairline and down her neck. Other places felt disgusting and sweaty, too.

“Give me a moment to clean up, will you? I feel pretty gross.” She confided. He laughed again, but allowed that he too should probably clean up. They separated to head to the male and female locker rooms respectively then.

* * *

Fon reflected on the spar and the Sky he’d found while he stripped and showered. Unlike all the other Skies he’d met, though there were only five or so, she didn’t try to conquer him. Sure, she’d attempted to win the spar, but she’d done it without flames and with hand-to-hand, Fon’s specialty. It was clear she had training, which was intriguing, but that she wasn’t a master at any sort of martial art. He wondered why that was. From what he’d seen of her with his little brother, she excelled at everything she put her mind too. Miss Vongola wasn’t someone to do something halfway.

Her flames were also strong enough to call to him, which was a first to be honest. Usually even the strongest Skies were too weak to call to Fon’s flames. And to think he’d been disappointed that he was the only one staying at the school for the holidays. The others would regret going home or taking on jobs for the break when they found out about this delicious little Sky. He very much looked forward to that. But Fon found her first, if by ‘found’ he meant was the only one of them present when she revealed her status as a Sky. He would be the first to court her, and hopefully the first Guardian she bonded with. He looked forward to it.

There was no reason to think she would reject him. Even as she was coming down from a Cloud rage, she’d accepted his invitation to spar and seemed to forget that which had been troubling her. She’d also agreed to a second spar immediately after a first. One spar with Fon was enough, or more than enough, for most people. Very rarely did they come back for seconds.

* * *

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry there were a bunch of time-skips in this one. I just really wanted to get it all down before I forgot something. This one was another story based on a weird dream I had. It made parts of the story weird, too. Hopefully it wasn't too disjointed, though. I also hope the pictures were helpful and not distracting. 
> 
> Well, it's not 5:20 AM. I should probably go to sleep...or something. I've officially broken 40,000 words for Nanowrimo! This is the closest I've ever been! Woot!
> 
> Hope you enjoyed this chapter.
> 
> ~ Wingzrooke


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